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MISCELLANEOUS WORKS 



OF 



DANIEL DE FOE. 



WITH PREFACES AND NOTES, INCLUDING THOSE ATTRIBUTED TO 



SIR WALTER SCOTT, 




| OF A CA^j 
CAPTAIN (L 
OR! CROft 



ETC. 




LONDON: 
BELL AND DALDY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 

1872. 



4* 



I K 5 












LONDON . PRINTED BT WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET 
AND CHARING CSOSS. 




CON 



MEMOIRS OF 



CHAPTER I. 

My birth and parentage — Strange dreams of my mother previous to my 
birth — My education — My father extremely indulgent — On my return 
froirl Oxford, he proposes marriage to me, which I decline, and am 
permitted to travel, accompanied by a young college acquaintance — 
Journey from Dover to Paris, and incidents on the road — Adventures 
which happen at Paris — Account of our journey to Italy . . 1 

CHAPTER M. 

Reflections — Journey to Grenoble, and description of the Swiss troops 
there — Account of the king and court — Depart for Pignerol — Siege of 
Casal — I escape great danger in* an action there — March to Saluces — 
Death of the Duke of Savoy — I catch the plague — Recover and spend 
the winter at Milan — Journey through Italy, and singular adventures 
there 13 

CHAPTER III. 

Arrive at Vienna — Account of the war in Germany — Of the famous 
conclusions of Leipsic — Journey from Vienna to Prague — Dreadful 
storm of Magdeburgh, and cruelties of the imperial soldiers — I leave 
the emperor's service in disgust, and arrive at Leipsic — Account of 
affairs there 26 

CHAPTER IV. 

I quit the Saxon camp, and join the Swedish army — Discipline of the 
Swedes — My comrade enters the Swedish service — Sir John Hepburn 
introduces me to the king — His conversation — I enter into the service 
— Battle with Tilly's army, who is completely defeated— The camp 
given up to plunder .40 

CHAPTER V. 

Arrival at Erfurt — I receive a wound before the Castlo of Marienburgh— 
Gracious reception of the king — Bravery of a private musketeer — 
Battle of Oppenheim — March to Mentz — Letter from my father — The 
king appoints me a colonel of horse — Battle of Lech, and defeat of 
Tilly 57 



VI 



CONTENTS. MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Farther proceedings of the campaign — Dangerous skirmish before Ausburg 
— General Tilly dies almost at the minute the king has his horse shot 
under him — Farther proceedings — Taking of Freynstat — Battle of 
Attembergh — Gallantry of a Saxon captain — I am taken by the enemy 
— Death of the king 77 

CHAPTER VII. 

Great lamentations for the loss of the king — The town of Leip^ic 
recovered by stratagem, whereby I regain my liberty — I leave the 
service, and spend two years a wanderer — Battle of Nordlingen — 
Bravery of old Horn — Melancholy event of the battle — I leave the 
army, and visit Holland — Return to England — Proceedings there 93 

CHAPTER VIII. 

War with the Scots — I volunteer to meet the enemy — Bad behaviour of 
our men — Conduct of the Scots — Base end of the expedition — A peace 
concluded — I visit the Scotch camp — Uncouth appearance of the 
soldiers — Character of the Highlanders 104 

CHAPTER IX. 

War breaks out again in the north — I join the king's army — Action with 
the Scots, in which they are victorious — Great discontents in England — 
Character of the king — I am sent on a message to the Scotch army — The 
king is reduced to submit to their terms — Encroachments of the par- 
liament — The gates of Hull shut against the king — The king raises an 
army — Loyalty of the English gentry 114 

CHAPTER X. 

The royal army takes the field — Action with the rebels under Essex — 
Battle of Edgehill — The Parliament claims the victory — They vote an 
address for peace — Sad reflections on the miseries of civil war . 128 

CHAPTER XI. 

Comical adventures, in which a female captain is victorious — Bravery of 
the parliament troops at Brentford — The winter spent in fruitless treaties 
— I am wounded in a skirmish with the enemy — Farther proceedings of 
the armies .......... 144 



CHAPTER XII. 

Cromwell makes his appearance on the stage, and turns the fortune of the 
war against the king's party — Frequent and disastrous actions — The 
Scots declare for the parliament, and enter England, with an army in 
the north — The king brings Irish regiments over, which gives great 
disgust — I am detached with Prince Rupert to the relief of York, 
which we accomplish — Disastrous action with Cromwell . . 160 



CONTENTS. — MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. Vll 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Narrow escape from the battle — Dangers of our retreat — Two of our 
party and myself disguise ourselves, and go to Leeds to learn news — 
Engagement with the country fellows on our return — Our party 
attempts to join Prince Rupert — Adventures on the road — We join the 
prince at Kendal, in Westmoreland 174 

CHAPTER XIV. 

State of the prince's army — Skirmishes — The king's army obtains some 
partial successes in the west — The armies join at Oxford — Farther 
proceedings — Bad conduct of the parliament soldiers — Negotiations 
with the parliament for peace — Proceedings of the division to which I 
belonged in the army 189 

CHAPTER XV. 

Action with Colonel Forbes, a Scotchman — I visit my father, who is 
prisoner of war at Shrewsbury, and obtain his exchange — Sir Thomas 
Fairfax appointed general of the parliament army — The king's obser- 
vation thereupon — Leicester taken by storm — Battle of Naseby — Fatal 
consequences thereof — The king retires to Wales . . . 203 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The king's army attacks Newark — Successful excursion into Lincolnshire — 
Siege of Huntingdon — Brave action of a dragoon — The Marquis of 
Montrose does great service in Scotland — I leave the army on a visit to 
my father's — Disastrous termination of the war, and fate of the king's 
party 217 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Various opinions on the king's throwing himself upon the fidelity of the 
Scots — The Scotch parliament refuse to receive him into Scotland — The 
king is given up — Consequences thereof — Reflections — The king's 
death — Conclusion .231 



CONTENTS. 



MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 



CHAPTER I. 

I volunteer on board the London, and go out with the Duke of York's 
expedition to Holland — Join the French fleet — General engagement 
with the Amsterdam squadron — Singular account of our pigeons aboard 
the London — Prince of Conde routes our forces — March to Quarignan 
and Valenciennes — The Prince of Orange leaves the army in disgust, 
but recedes from that resolution — The siege of Maestrich — False attack 
on Wyck — Siege of Cambray and St. Omars .... 273 

CHAPTER II. 

The famous peace concluded — Desperate battle at St. Dennis — Return to 
England — Commission given by King James — Earthquake at Dixmuyd 
— Siege of Namur — Prince Vaudemont's grand retreat — Destruction of 
Brussels — Villeroy's great army 291 

CHAPTER III. 

Plot to assassinate King "William — Account of the conspiracy — Dissi- 
pation of the guard at Shoerbeck — Left in a garrison without ammu- 
nition — Narrow escape from a hired incendiary — The advantage of a 
Jew as pro.veditor to the army and troops — Short description of Valencia 
and Barcelona 305 

CHAPTER IV. 

Negligence of the Governor of Monjouick — Extraordinary resolution of 
the Dutch general — Account of the great action at Monjouick — Panic 
among the soldiery — Great enterprise of the sailors at the siege of 
Barcelona — Difficulty of mounting a battery — The Duchess of Popoli 
in the engagement — Surrender of Barcelona — Remarkable instance of 
Catholic zeal 322 

CHAPTER V. 

Barcelona under King Charles — Bold peremptory demand on the autho- 
rities of Nules immediately to surrender — Singular interview between 
Earl Peterborow and Mahoni, and the result therefrom — Short de- 
scription of Valencia, and prodigious victory — Peterborow's stratagem 
to outwit the fleet at Barcelona — Ultimate release of Barcelona 339 



CONTENTS. — MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETON. IX 



CHAPTER VI. 

The king begins his journey to Madrid, and Peterborow to Valencia-r- 
Sad accident at St. Jago — Peterborow leaves Valencia — Savage cruelty 
of the Spaniards at Campilio — Amours of two English officers with 
nuns — Saint Vincent's procession — Curious customs of the Valencians 
during Lent 358 

CHAPTER VII.' 

Alicant besieged by General Gorge — Remarkable feat of a Scotch dragoon 
— Messenger to Alicant — Letter from the king of Spain to the queen of 
England — The siege of Carthagena — Signal defeat of the English before 
Villena — Comic appearance of Major Boyd on his journey to Venissa — 
Interesting account of hermits' cells at Montserat . . . 375 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Denia a garrison, by order of King Charles — Extraordinary storm of 
locusts — Singular mine explosion at Alicant — Sainte Clemente de la 
Mancha, rendered famous by the renowned Don Michael Cervantes — 
Interesting accounts — Surprising flight of eagles — The Inquisition 399 

CHAPTER IX. 

Bull-fight at La Mancha — Temperance and bigotry of the Spaniards — 
Reserve custom of gentlemen in company with ladies — Wretched music, 
except at Valencia — Music at executions — Singular appeal of a clergy- 
man to conscience, and very interesting conclusion . . . 416 

CHAPTER X. 

The shade of Don Quixotte — Concise account of Madrid — Anecdote of 
Mahoni and General Stanhope — The Escurial — Account of the Convent 
of the Carthusian Order 436 

CHAPTER XL 

Brief description of Biscay and other towns — Isle of Conference, and 
interview between the kings of France and Spain — Narrow escape from 
being drowned — Tempest in the Bay of Biscay, and miraculous de- 
liverance — Arrival in England — Conclusion .... 452 



CONTENTS, 



DICKORY CRONKE; OR, THE DUMB 
PHILOSOPHER. 






PAET I. 

Birth and Parentage Page 469 

Loses his Master and Mistress 471 

Constant Practice and Regular Management . . . . 473 

Wonderful Recovery of Speech ...... 475 

Good Advice to his Sister and Friends 477 

Mysteriously becomes again Dumb ...... 479 

PAET II. 

Abstract of Faith, &c 481 

Meditations and Observations 483 

PAET III. 

Prophetic Observations 489 

An Elegy . 493 



if 






EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS IS NOBODY'S 
BUSINESS. 






Scarcity of Female Servants 499 

Thefts committed by Female Servants 501 

Vails to Servants a bad practice 503 

Servants' Apparel ought to be regulated 505 

Anecdote of a Servant Wench 507 

Reform of many Abuses among Servants 509 

Robberies committed by Shoe-blacks 511 

Employment suggested for Vagrants 513 

Regulations for Porters and others 515 




MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 



Advertisement to the Edinburgh Edition of 1809. 



Whether this interesting work is considered as a romance, 
or as a series of authentic memoirs, in which the only fabulous 
circumstance is the existence of the hero ; it must un- 
doubtedly be allowed to be of the best description of either 
species of composition, and to reflect additional lustre, even 
on the author of Robinson Crusoe. 

There is so much simplicity and apparent fidelity of state- 
ment throughout the narrative, that the feelings are little in- 
debted to those who would remove the veil ; and the former 
editors, perhaps, have acted not unwisely in leaving the cir- 
cumstances of its authenticity in their original obscurity. 
The Memoirs of a Cavalier, have long, however, been ascer- 
tained to be the production of Daniel de Foe. Both the 
first and second editions were published without date ; but, 
from other evidence, the work appears to have been written 
shortly after Robinson Crusoe, in 1720-1. 

A few Notes have been added to the present edition, col- 
lected from the periodical publications of the time (now rare 
and curious), to exhibit the exact coincidence of the facts 
themselves, with the transactions narrated in these Memoirs. 

Edinburgh, 1809. 



THE 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



As an evidence that it is very probable these memorials were 
written many years ago, the persons now concerned in the 
publication, assure the reader, that they have had them in 
their possession finished, as they now appear, above twenty 
years. That they were so long ago found by great accident, 
among other valuable papers, in the closet of an eminent 
public minister, of no less figure than one of King William's 
secretaries of state. 

As it is not proper to trace them any farther, so neither is 
there any need to trace them at all, to give reputation to the 
story related, seeing the actions here mentioned have a suf- 
ficient sanction from all the histories of the times to which 
they relate, with this addition, that the admirable manner 
of relating them, and the wonderful variety of incidents, 
with which they are beautified in the course of a private 
gentleman's story, add such delight in the reading, and give 
such a lustre, as well to the accounts themselves as to the 
person who was the actor, that no story, we believe, extant 
in the world ever came abroad with such advantage. 

It must naturally give some concern in the reading, that 
the name of a person of so much gallantry and honour, and 
so many ways valuable to the world, should be lost to the 
reader. We assure them no small labour has been thrown 
away upon the inquiry; and all we have been able to arrive 
to of discovery in this affair is, that a memorandum was 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Xlll 

found with this manuscript, in these words, but not signed 
by any name, only the two letters of a name, which gives us 
no light into the matter ; which memoir was as follows : 

Memorandum. — 1 found this manuscript among my father's 
writings, and I understand that he got them as plunder, at, 
or after, the fight at Worcester, where he served as major 

of 's regiment of horse on the side of the parliament. 

I. K. 

As this has been of no use but to terminate the inquiry 
after the person, so, however, it seems most naturally to give 
an authority to the original of the work, viz., That it was 
born of a soldier ; and, indeed, it is, through every part, 
related with so soldierly a style, and in the very language of 
the field, that it seems impossible anything, but the very 
person who was present in every action here related, could 
be the relator of them. 

The accounts of battles, the sieges, and the several actions 
of which this work is so full, are all recorded in the histories 
of those times ; such as the great battle of Leipsic, the 
sacking of Magdeburg, the siege of Nuremburg, the passing 
the river Leek in Bavaria ; such also as the battles of 
Keynton, or Edge-hill; the battles of Newbury, Marston- 
moor, and Naseby, and the like. They are all, we say, 
recorded in other histories, and written by those who lived 
in those times, and, perhaps, had good authority for what 
they wrote. But do those relations give any of the beautiful 
ideas of things formed in this account? Have they one 
half of the circumstances and incidents of the actions them- 
selves that this man's eyes were witness to, and which his 
memory has thus preserved? He that has read the best 
accounts of those battles will be surprised to see the par 



^"" 



XIV PREFACE. MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. 

ticulars of the story so preserved, so nicely, and so agree- 
ably described; and will confess what we allege, that the 
story is inimitably told ; and even the great actions of the 
glorious King Gustavus Adolphus receive a lustre from this 
man's relations, which the world was never made sensible of 
before, and which the present age has much wanted of late, 
in order to give their affections a turn in favour of his late 
glorious successor. 

In the story of our own country's unnatural wars, he 
carries on the same spirit. How effectually does he record 
the virtues and glorious actions of King Charles L, at the 
same time that he frequently enters upon the mistakes of his 
majesty's conduct, and of his friends, which gave his enemies 
all those fatal advantages against him; which ended in the 
overthrow of his armies, the loss of his crown and life, and 
the ruin of the constitution. 

In all his accounts he does justice to his enemies, and 
honours the merits of those whose cause he fought against ; 
and many accounts recorded in his story, are not to be found 
even in the best histories of those times. 

What applause does he give to the gallantry of Sir Thomas 
Faijtfax, to his modesty, to his conduct, under which he him- 
self was subdued, and to the justice he did the king's troops 
when they laid down their arms. 

His description of the Scots' troops in the beginning of the 
war, and the behaviour of the party under the Earl of 
Holland, who went over against them, are admirable ; and 
his censure of their conduct, who pushed the king upon the 
quarrel, and then would not let him fight, is no more than 
what many of the king's friends (though less knowing as 
soldiers) have often complained of. 

In a word, this work is a confutation of many errors in all 

• 



PKEFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. X\ 

the writers upon the subject of our wars in England, and 
even in that extraordinary history written by the Earl of 
Clarendon ; but the editors were so just, that, when near 
twenty years ago, a person who had written a whole volume 
in folio, by way of answer to, and confutation of, Clarendon's 
history of the rebellion, would have borrowed the clauses in 
this account, which clash with that history, and confront it ; 
we say, the editors were so just as to refuse them. 

There can be nothing objected against the general credit of 
this work, seeing its truth is established upon universal 
history ; and almost all the facts, especially those of moment, 
are confirmed for their general part by all the writers of 
those times. If they are here embellished with particulars, 
which are nowhere else to be found, that is the beauty we 
boast of; and that it is that must recommend this work to all 
the men of sense and judgment that read it. 

The only objection we find possible to make against this 
work is, that it is not carried on farther ; or, as we may. say, 
finished, with the finishing the war of the time : and this we 
complain of also. But then we complain of it as a misfortune 
to the world, not as a fault in the author ; for how do we 
know but that this author might carry it on, and have 
another part finished which might not fall into the same 
hands, or may still remain with some of his family, and which 
they cannot indeed publish, to make it seem anything perfect, 
for want of the other parts which we have, and which we 
have now made public. Nor is it very improbable, but that 
if any such farther part is in being, the publishing these two 
parts may occasion the proprietors of the third to let the 
world see it ; and that, by such a discovery, the name of the 
person may also come to be known, which would, no doubt, 
be a great satisfaction to the reader as well as to us. 



■^H 



XVI PREFACE. MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

This, however, must be said, that if the same author should 
have written another part of this work, and carried it on to 
the end of those times ; yet, as the residue of those melan- 
choly days, to the restoration, were filled with the intrigues 
of government, the political management of illegal power, 
and the dissensions and factions of a people, who were then 
even in themselves but a faction, and that there was very 
little action in the field ; it is more than probable, that our 
author, who was a man of arms, had little share in those 
things, and might not care to trouble himself with looking at 
them. 

But, besides all this, it might happen, that he might go 
abroad again, at that time, as most of the gentlemen of 
quality, and who had an abhorrence for the power that then 
governed here, did. Nor are we certain, that he might live 
to the end of that time, so we can give no account whether 
he had any share in the subsequent actions of that time. 

It is enough, that we have the authorities above to recom- 
mend this part to us that is now published ; the relation, we 
are persuaded, will recommend itself, and nothing more can 
be needful, because nothing more can invite than the story 
itself, which, when the reader enters into, he will find it very 
hard to get out of, until he has gone through it. 




THE PUBLISHER OF THE SECOND EDITION TO 
THE READER.* 



The following historical memoirs are writ with so much 
spirit and good sense> that there is no doubt of their pleasing 
all such as can form any just pretensions to either. How- 
ever, as, upon reading of a book, it is a question that 
naturally occurs, "Who is the author?" and as it is too 
much the custom in these days, to form our sentiments of a 
performance, not from its intrinsic merit, but from the senti- 
ments we form of the writer, the present republication of 
these memoirs will renew an inquiry which has been often 
made, "Who wrote them?" Some have imagined the 
whole to be a romance ; if it be, it is a romance the likest to 
truth that I ever read. It has all the features of truth, it is 
clothed with her simplicity, and adorned with her charms. 
Without hazard I may venture to say, were all romance 
writers to follow this author's example, their works would 
yield entertainment to philosophers, as well as serve for the 
amusement of beaux-esprits. But I am fully persuaded, our 
author, whoever he was, had been early concerned in the 
actions he relates. It is certain, no man could have given a 
description of his retreat from Marston-moor to Rochdale, 
and from thence over the moors to the north, in so apt and 
proper terms, and in so exact a manner, unless he had really 
travelled over the very ground he describes. I could point 

* Printed at Leeds, by James Lister, without date. 
VOL. II. b 



XV111 



TO THE READER. 



out many other instances in the course of the memoirs, which 
evidence, that the author must have been well acquainted 
with the towns, battles, sieges, &c, and a party in the 
actions he relates. But, as it is needless to do this, all 
that remains is, to trace our author to his name. 

He says he was second son to a Shropshire gentleman, 
who was made a peer in the reign of King Charles I., whose 
seat lay eight miles from Shrewsbury. This account suits no 
one so well as Andrew Newport, Esq., second son to Richard 
Newport, of High Ercoll, Esq. ; which Richard was created 
Lord Newport, October 14th, 1642. This Andrew New- 
port, Esq., whom we suppose our author to be, was, after the 
Restoration, made a commissioner of the customs, probably 
in reward of his zeal and good services for the royal cause. 

The several illustrations these memoirs furnish to the 
history of those times they refer to, the variety of adventures 
they contain, and the elegant account herein given of the 
wars in Germany and England, will abundantly recommend 
them to the curious. 




MEMOIES 

o 

CAVA 



OF A 



MILITAR Y 

o: 

The WARS m Jerma 




The WARS in England, 

From the Year 1632, to the Year 1648. 



Written above Fourscore Years ago by an English Gentle- 
man, who served first in the Army of Gustavus Adolphus, 
the glorious King of Sweden, till his Death; and after that, 
in. the Eoyal Army of King Charles the First, from the 
Eeginning of the Rebellion, to the End of that War. 



Sic ubi delectos per torva armenta juvencos 
Agricola imposito socidre Affectat aratro : 
Illi indignantes qms nondum vomere Multo 
Ardua nodosos cervix descendit in Armos, 
In diverse/, trahunt, atq ; cequis vencula laxcrnt 
Viribus, et vario confundunt limite Sulcos : 
Hand secus indomitos praceps Discordia Eratres 
Asperat. 

Stat. Theb. Lib. 1. 
Et Fratres, natosq ; suos videre, patresque : 
Depressum est civile nsfas 

Lucan, Lib. 4. 



MEMOIRS 



OF 



A CAVALIER. 



CHAPTER I. 

Ml* BIRTH AND PARENTAGE STRANGE DREAMS OF MY 

MOTHER PREVIOUS TO MY BIRTH MY EDUCATION MY 

FATHER EXTREMELY INDULGENT ON MY RETURN FROM 

OXFORD, HE PROPOSES MARRIAGE TO ME, WHICH I 
DECLINE, AND AM PERMITTED TO TRAVEL, ACCOMPANIED 

BY A YOUNG COLLEGE ACQUAINTANCE JOURNEY FROM 

DOVER TO PARIS, AND INCIDENTS ON THE ROAD AD- 
VENTURES WHICH HAPPEN AT PARIS ACCOUNT OF OUR 

JOURNEY TO ITALY. 



It may suffice the reader, without being very inquisitive 
after my name, that I was born in the county of Salop, in 
the year 1608; under the government of what star I was 
never astrologer enough to examine ; but the consequences 
of my life may allow me to suppose some extraordinary 
influence affected my birth. If there be anything in dreams 
also, my mother, who was mighty observant that way, took 
minutes, which I have since seen in the first leaf of her 
Prayer Book, of several strange dreams she had while she 
was with child of her second son, which was myself. Once 
she noted that she dreamed she was carried away by a 
regiment of horse, and delivered in the fields of a son, that 
as soon as it was born had two wings came out of its back, 
and in half an hour's time flew away from her ; and the 
very evening before I was born she dreamed she was brought 
to bed of a son, and that all the while she was in labour a 
man stood under her window beating on a kettle-drum, 
which very much discomposed her. 

My father was a gentleman of a very plentiful fortune, 

VOL. II. B 



MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 



having an estate of above 5,000Z. per annum, of a family 
nearly allied to several of the principal nobility, and lived 
about six miles from the town of High-Excol ; and my 

mother being at on some particular occasion, was 

surprised there at a friend's house, and brought me very safe 
into the world. 

I was my father's second son, and therefore was not 
altogether so much slighted as younger sons of good families 
generally are ; but my father saw something in my genius 
also which particularly pleased him, and so made him take 
extraordinary care of my education. • 

I was taught therefore, by the best masters that could be 
had, everything that was needful to accomplish a young 
gentleman for the world ; and at seventeen years old my 
tutor told my father an academic education was very proper 
for a person of quality, and he thought me very fit for it : so 

my father entered me of college in Oxford, where I 

continued three years. 

A collegiate life did not suit me at all, though I loved 
books well enough. It was never designed that I should be 
either a lawyer, physician, or divine ; and I wrote to my 
father that I thought I had stayed there long enough for a 
gentleman, and with his leave I desired to give him a visit. 

During my stay at Oxford, though I passed through the 
proper exercises of the house, yet my chief reading was 
upon history and geography, as that which pleased my mind 
best, and supplied me with ideas most suitable to my genius : 
by one I understood what great actions had been done in 
the world, and by the other I understood where they had 
been done. 

My father readily complied with my desire of coming 
home, for besides that he thought, as I did, that three years' 
time at the university was enough, he also most passionately 
loved me, and began to think of my settling near him. 

At my arrival I found myself extraordinarily caressed' by 
my father, and he seemed to take a particular delight in my 
conversation. My mother, who lived in perfect union with 
him, both in desires and affection, received me very pas- 
sionately: apartments were provided for me by myself, and 
horses and servants allowed me in particular. 

My father never went a hunting, an exercise he was 
exceeding fond of, but he would have me with him ; and it 



INDULGENCE OF MY FATHER. 



pleased him when he found me like the sport. I lived thus, 
in all the pleasures 'twas possible for me to enjoy, for about 
a year more ; when going out one morning with my father 
to hunt a stag, and having had a very hard chase, and 
gotten a great way off from home, we had leisure enough 
to ride gently back ; and as we returned, my father took 
occasion to enter into a serious discourse with me concerning 
the manner of my settling in the world. 

He told me, with a great deal of passion, that he loved 
me above all the rest of his children, and that therefore he 
intended to do very well for me; and that my eldest brother 
being already married and settled, he had designed the same 
for me, and proposed a very advantageous match for me 
with a young lady of very extraordinary fortune and merit, 
and offered to make a settlement of 2,000Z. per annum on 
me, which he said he would purchase for me without 
diminishing his paternal estate. 

There was too much tenderness in this discourse not to 
affect me exceedingly. I told him I would perfectly resign 
myself unto his disposal. But, as my father had, together 
with his love for me, a very nice judgment in his discourse, 
he fixed his eyes very attentively on me ; and though my 
answer was without the least reserve, yet he thought he saw 
some uneasiness in me at the proposal, and from thence 
concluded that my compliance was rather an act of dis- 
cretion than inclination ; and, that however I seemed so 
absolutely given up to what he had proposed, yet my answer 
was really an effect of my obedience rather than my choice ; 
so he returned very quick upon me, Look you, son, though I 
give you my own thoughts in the matter, yet I would have 
you be very plain with me ; for if your own choice does not 
agree with mine, I will be your adviser, but will never 
impose upon you ; and therefore let me know your mind 
freely. I don't reckon myself capable, sir, said I, with a 
great deal of respect, to make so good a choice for myself as 
you can for me ; and though my opinion differed from yours, 
its being your opinion would reform mine, and my judgment 
would as readily comply as my duty. I gather at least from 
thence, said my father, that your designs lay another way 
before, however they may comply with mine ; and therefore 
I would know what it was you would have asked of me if I 
had not offered this to you ; and you must not deny me your 

b 2 



MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 



obedience in this, if you expect I should believe your readi- 
ness in the other. 

Sir, said I, 'twas impossible I should lay out for myself 
just what you have proposed ; but if my inclinations were 
never so contrary, though at your command you shall know 
them, yet I declare them to be wholly subjected to your 
order. I confess my thoughts did not tend towards marriage 
or a settlement ; for though I had no reason to question your 
care of me, yet I thought a gentleman ought always to see 
something of the world before he confined himself to any 
part of it ; and if I had been to ask your consent to any- 
thing, it should have been to give me leave to travel for a 
short time, in order to qualify myself to appear at home like 
a son to so good a father. 

In what capacity would you travel ? replied my father ; 
you must go abroad either as a private gentleman, as a 
scholar, or as a soldier. If it were in the latter capacity, 
sir, said I, returning pretty quick, I hope I should not 
misbehave myself; but I am not so determined as not to be 
ruled by your judgment. Truly, replied my father, I see no 
war abroad at this time worth while for a man to appear in, 
whether we talk of the cause or the encouragement; and 
indeed, son, I am afraid you need not go far for adventures 
of that nature, for times seem to look as if this part of 
Europe would find us work enough. My father spake then 
relating to the quarrel likely to happen between the king of 
England and the Spaniard (upon the breach of the match 
between the king of England and the infanta of Spain, and 
particularly upon the old quarrel of the king of Bohemia 
and the Palatinate), for I believe he had no notions of a 
civil war in his head. 

In short, my father, perceiving my inclinations very for- 
ward to go abroad, gave me leave to travel, upon condition I 
would promise to return in two years at farthest, or sooner, 
if he sent for me. 

While I was at Oxford I happened into the society of a 
young gentleman, of a good family, but of a low fortune, 
being a younger brother, and who had indeed instilled into 
me the first desires of going abroad, and who I knew pas- 
sionately longed to travel, but had not sufficient allowance to 
defray his expenses as a gentleman. We had contracted a 
very close friendship, and our humours being very agreeable 



START ON MY TRAVELS. O 

to one another, we daily enjoyed the conversation of letters. 
He was of a generous free temper, without the least affecta- 
tion, or deceit, a handsome proper person, a strong body, very 
good mien, and brave to the last degree. His name was 
Fielding, and we called him captain, though it be a very un- 
usual title in a college ; but fate had some hand in the title, 
for he had certainly the lines of a soldier drawn in his coun- 
tenance. I imparted to him the resolutions I had taken, and 
how I had my father's consent to go abroad; and would know 
his mind, whether he would go with me : he sent me word, 
he would go with all his heart. 

My father, when he saw him, for I sent for him imme- 
diately to come to me, mightily approved my choice ; so we 
got our equipage ready, and came away for London. 

'Twas on the 22nd of April, 1630, when we embarked at 
Dover, landed in a few hours at Calais, and immediately 
took post for Paris. I shall not trouble the reader with a 
journal of my travels, nor with the description of places, 
which every geographer can do better than I ; but these me- 
moirs being only a relation of what happened either to our- 
selves, or in our own knowledge, I shall confine myself to that 
part of it. 

We had indeed some diverting passages in our journey to 
Paris ; as, first, the horse my comrade was upon fell so very 
lame with a slip, that he could not go, and hardly stand ; and 
the fellow that rid with us express, pretended to ride away 
to a town five miles off to get a fresh horse, and so left us on 
the road with one horse between two of us ; we followed as 
well as we could, but being strangers, missed the way, and 
wandered a great way out of the road. Whether the man 
performed in reasonable time or not, we could not be sure, 
but if it had not been for an old priest, we had never found 
him. We met this man, by a very good accident, near a 
little village whereof he was curate : we spoke Latin enough 
just to make him understand us, and he did not speak it much 
better himself ; but he carried us into the village to his house, 
gave us wine and bread, and entertained us with wonderful 
courtesy. After this he sent into the village, hired a peasant 
and a horse for my captain, and sent him to guide us into the 
road. At parting, he made a great many compliments to us 
in French, which we could just understand ; but the sum was, 
to excuse him for a question he had a mind to ask us. After 



MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 



leave to ask what he pleased, it was, if we wanted any money 
for our journey, and pulled out two pistoles, which he offered 
either to give or lend us. 

I mention this exceeding courtesy of the curate, because, 
though civility is very much in use in France, and especially 
to strangers, yet it is a very unusual thing to have them 
part with their money. , 

We let the priest know, first, that we did not want money, 
and next, that we were very sensible of the obligation he had 
put upon us ; and I told him in particular, if I lived to see 
him again, I would acknowledge it. 

This accident of our horse was, as we afterwards found, 
of some use lo us. We had left our two servants behind us 
at Calais to bring our baggage after us, by reason of some 
dispute between the captain of the packet and the custom- 
house officer, which could not be adjusted, and we were will- 
ing to be at Paris. The fellows followed as fast as they 
could, and, as near as we could learn, in the time we lost our 
way were robbed, and our portmanteaus opened. They took 
what they pleased ; but as there was no money there, but 
linen and necessaries, the loss was not great. 

Our guide carried us to Amiens, where we found the ex- 
press and our two servants, who the express meeting on the 
road with a spare horse, had brought back with him thither. 

We took this for a good omen of our successful journey, 
having escaped a danger which might have been greater to 
us than it was to our servants ; for the highwaymen in France 
do not always give a traveller the civility of bidding him stand 
and deliver his money, but frequently fire upon him first, and 
then take his money. 

We stayed one day at Amiens, to adjust this little disorder, 
and walked about the town, and into the great church, but 
saw nothing very remarkable there ; but going across a broad 
street near the great church, we saw a crowd of people gazing 
at a mountebank doctor, who made a long harangue to them 
with a thousand antic postures, and gave out bills this way, 
and boxes of physic that way, and had a great trade, when 
on a sudden the people raised a cry, Larron, Larron (in Eng- 
lish, Thief, Thief), on the other side the street, and all the 
auditors ran away from Mr. Doctor, to see what the matter 
was. Among the rest we went to see ; and the case was 
plain and short enough. Two English gentlemen and a 



A FRENCH PICKPOCKET. 7 

Scotchman, travellers as we were, were standing gazing at 
this prating doctor, and one of them catched a fellow picking 
his pocket. The fellow had got some of his money, for he 
dropt two or three pieces just by him, and had got hold of 
his watch ; but being surprised, let it slip again ; but the rea- 
son of telling this story, is for the management of it. This 
thief had his seconds so ready, that as soon as the English- 
man had seized him, they fell in, pretended to be mighty 
zealous for the stranger, take the fellow by the throat, and 
make a great bustle ; the gentleman not doubting but the man 
was secured, let go his own hold of him, and left him to them. 
The hubbub was great, and it was these fellows cried Larron, 
Larron ; but, with a dexterity peculiar to themselves, had let 
the right fellow go, and pretended to be all upon one of their 
own gang. At last, they bring the man to the gentleman, to 
ask him what the fellow had done ? who, when he saw the 
person they seized on, presently told them that was not the 
man. Then they seemed to be in more consternation than 
before, and spread themselves all over the street, crying 
Larron, Larron, Larron, pretending to search for the fellow ; 
and so one one way, one another, they were all gone, the noise 
went over, the gentlemen stood looking at one another, and 
the bawling doctor began to have the crowd about him again. 

This was the first French trick I had the opportunity of 
seeing; but I was told they have a great many more as 
dexterous as this. 

We soon got acquaintance with these gentlemen, who were 
going to Paris as well as we ; so the next day we made up 
our company with them, and were a pretty troop of five 
gentlemen and four servants. 

As we had really no design to stay long at Paris, so, indeed, 
excepting the city itself, there was not much to be seen there. 
Cardinal Richelieu, who was not only a supreme minister in 
the church, but prime minister in the state, was now made 
also general of the king's forces, with a title never known in 
France before nor since, viz., lieutenant-general au place 
du Roy, in the king's stead, or as some have since translated 
it, representing the person of the king. 

Under this character he pretended to execute all the royal 
powers in the army, without appeal to the king, or without 
waiting for orders ; and having parted from Paris the winter 
before, had now actually begun the war against the duke of 



8 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

Savoy; in the process of which, he restored the duke of 
Mantua, and having taken Pignerol from the duke, put it 
into such a state of defence, as the duke could never force it 
out of his hands, and reduced the duke, rather by manage 
and conduct than by force, to make peace without it ; so as, 
annexing it to the crown of France, it has ever since been 
a thorn in his foot, that has always made the peace of Savoy 
lame and precarious ; and France has since made Pignerol 
one of the strongest fortresses in the world. 

As the cardinal, with all the military part of the court, was 
in the field ; so the king, to be near him, was gone with the 
queen and all the court, just before I reached Paris, to reside 
at Lyons. All these considered, there was nothing to do at 
Paris ; the court looked like a citizen's house when the family 
was all gone into the country ; and I thought the whole city 
looked very melancholy, compared to all the fine things I 
had heard of it. 

The queen-mother and her party were chagrined at the 
cardinal, who, though he owed his grandeur to her immediate 
favour, was now grown too great any longer to be at the 
command of her majesty, or indeed in her interests ; and 
therefore the queen was under dissatisfaction, and her party 
looked very much down. 

The protestants were everywhere disconsolate; for the 
losses they had received at Rochelle, Nismes, and Montpelier, 
had reduced them to an absolute dependence on the king's 
will, without all possible hopes of ever recovering themselves, 
or being so mueh as in a condition to take arms for their re- 
ligion ; and therefore the wisest of them plainly foresaw their 
own entire reduction, as it since came to pass ; and I remem- 
ber very well, that a protestant gentleman told me once, as 
we were passing from Orleans to Lyons, that the English 
had ruined them ; and therefore, says he, I think the next 
occasion the king takes to use us ill, as I know it will not be 
long before he ^oes, we must all fly over to England, where 
you are bound to maintain us for having helped to turn us 
out of our own cr 'intry. I asked him what he meant by 
saying the English ,d done it ? He returned short upon 
me ; I do not mean, says he, by not relieving Rochelle, but 
by helping to ruin Rochelle, when you and the Dutch lent 
ships to beat our fleet, > Hich all the ships in France could 
not have done without you. 



RUN A MAN THROUGH THE BODY. y 

I was too young in the world to be very sensible of this 
before, and therefore was something startled at the charge ; 
but when I came to discourse with this gentleman, I soon saw 
the truth of what he said was undeniable, and have since re- 
flected on it with regret, that the naval power of the protes- 
tants, which was then superior to the royal, would certainly 
have been the recovery of all their fortunes, had it not been 
unhappily broke by their brethren of England and Holland, 
the former lending seven men-of-war, and the latter twenty, 
for the destruction of the Rochellers' fleet ; and by these very 
ships the Rochellers' fleet was actually beaten and destroyed, 
and they never afterwards recovered their force at sea, and by 
consequence sunk under the siege, which the English after- 
wards in vain attempted to prevent. 

These things made the protestants look very dull, and ex- 
pected the ruin of all their party; which had certainly 
happened had the cardinal lived a few years longer. 

We stayed in Paris about three weeks, as well to see the 
court, and what rarities the place afforded, as by an occasion 
which had like to have put a short period to our ramble. 

Walking one morning before the gate of the Louvre, with 
a design to see the Swiss draw up, which they always did, 
and exercised just before they relieved the guards ; a page 
came up to me, and speaking English to me, Sir, says he, the 
captain must needs have your immediate assistance. I that 
had not the knowledge of any person in Paris but my own 
companion, whom I called captain, had no room to question, 
but it was he that sent for me ; and crying out hastily to him, 
Where I followed the fellow as fast as it was possible. He 
led me through several passages which I knew not, and at last 
through a tennis-court, and into a large room, where three 
men, like gentlemen, were engaged very briskly, two against 
one. The room was very dark, so that I could not easily 
know them asunder; but being fully possessed with an opinion 
before of my captain's danger, I ran into the room with my 
sword in my hand. I had not particularly engaged any of them, 
nor so much as made a pass at any, when I received a very 
dangerous thrust in my thigh, rather occasioned by my too 
hasty running in, than a real design of the person ; but 
enraged at the hurt, without examining who it was hurt me, 
I threw myself upon him, and run my sword quite through 
his body. 



10 



MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 



The novelty of the adventure, and the unexpected fall of 
the man by a stranger, come in nobody knew how, had be- 
calmed the other two, that they really stood gazing at me. 
By this time I had discovered that my captain was not there, 
and that 'twas some strange accident brought me thither. I 
could speak but little French, and supposed they could speak 
no English ; so I stepped to the door to see for the page that 
brought me thither ; but seeing nobody there, and the passage 
clear, I made off as fast as I could, without speaking a word ; 
nor did the other two gentlemen offer to stop me. 

But I was in a strange confusion when, coming into those 
entries and passages which the page led me through, I could 
by no means find my way out ; at last, seeing a door open 
that looked through a house into the street, I went in, and out 
at the other door ; but then I was at as great a loss to know 
where I was, and which was the way to my lodging. The 
wound in my thigh bled apace, and I could feel the blood in 
my breeches. In this interval came by a chair ; I called, and 
went into it, and bid them, as well as I could, go to the 
Louvre ; for though I knew not the name of the street where 
I lodged, I knew I could find the way to it when I was at 
the Bastile. The chairmen went on their own way, and being 
stopped by a company of the guards as they went, set me 
down till the soldiers were marched by ; when looking out, 
I found I was just at my own lodging, and the captain was 
standing at the door looking for me. I beckoned him to 
me, and, whispering, told him I was very much hurt, and bid 
him pay the chairmen, and ask no questions, but come to me. 

I made the best of my way up stairs, but had lost so much 
blood, that I had hardly spirits enough to keep me from 
swooning, till he came in : he was equally concerned with 
me to see me in such a bloody condition, and presently called 
up our landlord, and he as quickly called in his neighbours, 
that I had a room full of people about me in a quarter of an 
hour. But this had liked to have been of worse consequence 
to me than the other ; for by this time there was great 
inquiring after the person who killed a man at the tennis- 
court. My landlord was then sensible of his mistake, and 
came to me, and told me the danger I was in, and very 
honestly offered to convey me to a friend's of his, where I 
should be very secure ; I thanked him, and suffered myself 
to be carried at midnight whither he pleased. He visited me 



DISORDER OF FRENCH AFFAIRS. 



11 



very often, till I was well enough to walk about, which was 
not in less than ten days, and then we thought fit to be gone ; 
so we took post for Orleans ; but when I came upon the 
road I found myself in a new error, for my wound opened 
again with riding, and I was in a worse condition than before, 
being forced to take up at a little village on the road, called 

, about miles from Orleans, where there was no 

surgeon to be had, but a sorry country barber, who never- 
theless dressed me as well as he could, and in about a week 
more I was able to walk to Orleans at three times. 

Here I stayed till I was quite well, and then took coach 
for Lyons, and so through Savoy into Italy. 

I spent near two years' time after this bad beginning, in 
travelling through Italy, and to the several courts of Erome, 
Naples, Venice, and Vienna. 

When I came to Lyons, the king was gone from thence to 
Grenoble to meet the cardinal, but the queens were both 
at Lyons. 

The French affairs seemed at this time to have but an 
indifferent aspect ; there was no life in anything but where 
the cardinal was. He pushed on everything with extraor- 
dinary conduct, and generally with success ; he had taken 
Suza and Pignerol from the Duke of Savoy, and was prepar- 
ing to push the duke even out of all his dominions. 

But in the mean time everywhere else things looked ill ; 
the troops were ill paid, the magazines empty, the people 
mutinous, and a general disorder seized the minds of the 
court; and the cardinal, who was the soul of everything, 
desired this interview at Grenoble, in order to put things into 
some better method. 

This politic minister always ordered matters so, that if 
there was success in anything the glory was his; but if 
things miscarried it was all laid upon the king. This con- 
duct was so much the more nice, as it is the direct contrary 
to the custom in like cases, where kings assume the glory of 
all the success in an action ; and when a thing miscarries, 
make themselves easy by sacrificing their ministers and 
favourites to the complaints and resentments of the people ; 
but this accurate refined statesman got over this point. 

While we were at Lyons, and as I remember, the third 
day after our coming thither, we had liked to have been 
involved in a state broil, without knowing where we were. 






12 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. 

It was of a Sunday, in the evening ; the people of Lyons, 
who had been sorely oppressed in taxes, and the war in Italy 
pinching their trade, began to be very tumultuous ; we found 
the day before the mob got together in great crowds, and 
talked oddly ; the king was everywhere reviled, and spoken 
disrespectfully of, and the magistrates of the city either 
winked at, or durst not attempt to meddle, lest they should 
provoke the people. 

But on Sunday night, about midnight, we were waked by 
a prodigious* noise in the street ; I jumpt out of bed, and, 
running to the window, I saw the street as full of mob as it 
could hold. Some, armed with muskets and halberds, marched 
in very good order ; others in disorderly crowds, all shouting 
and crying out, Du paix le Roy, and the like. One, that led 
a great party of this rabble, carried a loaf of bread upon the 
top of a pike, and other lesser loaves, signifying the smallness 
of their bread, occasioned by dearness. 

By morning this crowd was gathered to a great height ; 
they run roving over the whole city, shut up all the shops, 
and forced all the people to join with them ; from thence 
they went up to the castle, and, renewing the clamour, a 
strange consternation seized all the princes. 

They broke open the doors of the officers, collectors of the 
new taxes, and plundered their houses, and had not the 
persons themselves fled in time, they had been very ill treated. 

The queen-mother, as she was very much displeased to see 
such consequences of the government, in whose management 
she had no share, so I suppose she had the less concern upon 
her. However, she came into the court of the castle and 
showed herself to the people, gave money amongst them, 
and spoke gently to them ; and by a way peculiar to herself, 
and which obliged all she talked with, she pacified the mob 
gradually, sent them home with promises of redress and the 
like; and so appeased this tumult in two days, by her 
prudence, which the guards in the castle had small mind to 
meddle with, and if they had, would, in all probability, have 
made the better side the worse, s 

There had been several seditions of the like nature in 
sundry other parts of France, and the very army began to 
murmur, though not to mutiny, for want of provisions. 

This sedition at Lyons was not quite over when we left 
the place, for, finding the city all in a broil, we considered 



MADE PRISONERS OF WAR. 13 

we had no business there ; and what the consequence of a 
popular tumult might be, we did not see, so we prepared to 
be gone. We had not rid above three miles out of the city, 
but we were brought as prisoners of war, by a party of 
mutineers, who had been abroad upon the scout, and were 
charged with being messengers sent to the cardinal for forces 
to reduce the citizens ; with these pretences they brought us 
back in triumph, and the queen-mother being by this time 
groWn something familiar to them, they carried us before 
her. 

When they inquired of us who we were, we called ourselves 
Scots ; for as the English were very much out of favour in 
France at this time, the peace having been made not many 
months, and not supposed to be very durable, because parti- 
cularly displeasing to the people of England ; so the Scots 
were on the other extreme with the French. Nothing was 
so much caressed as the Scots, and a man had no more to do 
in France, if he would be well received there, than to say he 
was a Scotchman. 

When we came before the queen-mother she seemed to 
receive us with some stiffness at first, and caused her guards 
to take us into custody ; but as she was a lady of most exquisite 
politics, she did this to amuse the mob, and we were imme- 
diately after dismissed; and the queen herself made a handsome 
excuse to us for the rudeness we had suffered, alleging the 
troubles of the times ; and the next morning we had three 
dragoons of the guards to convoy us out of the jurisdiction of 
Lyons. 

CHAPTER II. 

REFLECTIONS JOURNEY TO GRENOBLE, AND DESCRIPTION 

OF THE SWISS TROOPS THERE ACCOUNT OF THE KING 

AND COURT DEPART FOR PIGNEROL SIEGE OF CASAL 

I ESCAPE GREAT DANGER IN AN ACTION THERE MARCH 

TO SALUCES DEATH OF THE DUKE OF SAVOY 1 CATCH 

THE PLAGUE RECOVER AND SPEND THE WINTER AT 

MILAN — JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, AND SINGULAR AD- 
VENTURES THERE. 

I confess this little adventure gave me an aversion to popu- 
lar tumults all my life after, and if nothing else had been in 



14 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

the cause, would have biassed me to espouse the king's party 
in England, when our popular heats carried all before it at 
home. 

But I must say, that when I called to mind since, the 
address, the management, the compliance in show, and in 
general the whole conduct of the queen-mother with the mu- 
tinous people of Lyons, and compared it with the conduct of 
my unhappy master the king of England, I could not but see 
that the queen understood much better than King Charles, 
the management of politics, and the clamours of the 
people. 

Had this princess been at the helm in England, she would 
have prevented all the calamities of the civil war here, and 
yet not have parted with what that good prince yielded in 
order to peace neither ; she would have yielded gradually, 
and then gained upon them gradually; she would have man- 
aged them to the point she 'had designed them, as she did all 
parties in France; and none could effectually subject her, 
but the very man she had raised to be her principal support ; 
I mean the cardinal. 

"We went from hence to Grenoble, and arrived there the 
same day that the king and the cardinal, with the whole court, 
went out to view a body of six thousand Swiss foot, which 
the cardinal had wheedled the cantons to grant to the king, 
to help to ruin their neighbour the duke of Savoy. 

The troops were exceeding fine, well-accoutred, brave, 
clean-limbed, stout fellows indeed. Here I saw the cardinal ; 
there was an air of church gravity in his habit, but all the 
vigour of a general, and the sprightliness of a vast genius in 
his face ; he affected a little stiffness in his behaviour, but 
managed all his affairs with such clearness, such steadiness, 
and such application, that it was no wonder he had such 
success in every undertaking. 

Here I saw the king, whose figure was mean, his counte- 
nance hollow, and always seemed dejected, and every way 
discovering that weakness in his countenance, that appeared 
in his actions. 

If he was ever sprightly and vigorous, it was when the 
cardinal was with him ; for he depended so much on every- 
thing he did, that he was at the utmost dilemma when he was 
absent, always timorous, jealous, and irresolute. 

After the review the cardinal was absent some days, having 



ARRIVE AT PIGNEROL. 



15 



been to wait on the queen-mother at Lyons, where, as it was 
discoursed, they were at least seemingly reconciled. 

I observed, while the cardinal was gone, there was no 
court, the king was seldom to be seen, very small attendance 
given, and no bustle at the castle ; but as soon as the cardinal 
returned, the great councils were assembled, the coaches of 
the ambassadors went every day to the castle, and a face ct 
business appeared upon the whole court. 

Here the measures of the Duke of Savoy's ruin were con- 
certed, and in order to it the king and the cardinal put 
themselves at the head of the army, with which they imme- 
diately reduced all Savoy, took Chamberry and the whole 
duchy, except Montmelian. 

The army that did this was not above twenty- two thousand 
men, including the Swiss, and but indifferent troops neither, 
especially the French foot, who, compared to the infantry I 
have seen since in the German and Swedish armies, were not 
fit to be called soldiers. On the other hand, considering the 
Savoyards and Italian troops, they were good troops, but the 
cardinal's conduct made amends for all these deficiencies. 

From hence I went to Pignerol, which was then little more 
than a single fortification on the hill near the town called St. 
Bride's ; but the situation of that was very strong. I mention 
this because of the prodigious works since added to it, by 
which it has since obtained the name of the right hand of 
France ; they had begun a new line below the hill, and some 
works were marked out on the side of the town next the fort ; 
but the cardinal afterwards drew the plan of the works with 
his own hand, by which it was made one of the strongest 
fortresses in Europe. 

While I was at Pignerol, the governor of Milan, for the 
Spaniards, came with an army and sat down before Casal. 
The grand quarrel, and for which the war in this part of Italy 
was begun, was this : the Spaniards and Germans pretended 
to the duchy of Mantua ; the Duke of Nevers, a Frenchman, 
had not only a title to it, but had got possession of it ; but, 
being ill-supported by the French, was beaten out by the im- 
perialists, and after a long siege, the Germans took Mantua 
itself, and drove the poor duke quite out of the country. 

The taking of Mantua elevated the spirits of the Duke of 
Savoy ; and the Germans and Spaniards, being now at more 



16 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

leisure, with a complete army, came to his assistance, and 
formed the siege of Montserrat. 

For as the Spaniards pushed the Duke of Mantua, so the 
French by way of diversion lay hard upon the Duke of Savoy; 
they had seized Montserrat, and held it for the Duke of 
Mantua, and had a strong French garrison under Thoiras, 
a brave and experienced commander ; and thus affairs stood 
when we came into the French army. 

I had no business there as a soldier, but having passed as 
a Scotch gentleman with the mob at Lyons, and after with 
her majesty, the queen-mother, when we obtained the guard 
of her dragoons ; we had also her majesty's pass, with which 
we came and went where we pleased ; and the cardinal, who 
was then not on very good terms with the queen, but willing 
to keep smooth water there, when two or three times our 
passes came to be examined, showed a more than ordinary 
respect to us on that very account, our passes being from the 
queen. 

Casal being besieged, as I have observed, began to be in 
danger ; for the cardinal, who it was thought had formed a 
design to ruin Savoy, was more intent upon that than upon 
the succour of the Duke of Mantua ; but necessity calling upon 
him to deliver so great a captain as Thoiras, and not to let 
such a place as Casal fall into the hands of the enemy, the 
king, or cardinal rather, ordered the Duke of Momorency, 
and the Mareschal D'Effiat, with ten thousand foot and two 
thousand horse, to march and join the Mareschals de la Force 
and Schomberg, who lay already with an army on the frontiers 
of Genoa, but to weak to attempt the raising the siege of 
Casal. 

As all men thought there would be a battle between the 
French and the Spaniards, I could not prevail with myself to 
lose the opportunity, and therefore, by the help of the passes 
above mentioned, I came to the French army under the 
Duke of Momorency. We marched through the enemy's 
country with great boldness and no small hazard, for the 
Duke of Savoy appeared frequently with great bodies of horse 
on the rear of the army, and frequently skirmished with our 
troops, in one of which I had the folly, I can call it no better, 
for I had no business there, to go out and see the sport, as 
the French gentlemen called it. I was but a raw soldier, 
and did not like the sport at all, for this party was surrounded 



GREAT DANGER IN ACTION. 



17 



by the Duke of Savoy, and almost all killed, for as to quar- 
ter, they neither asked nor gave. I ran away very fairly one 
of the first, and my companion with me, and by the goodness 
of our horses got out of the fray, and beiug not much known 
in the army, we came into the camp an hour or two after, 
as if we had been only riding abroad for the air. 

This little rout made the general very cautious, for the 
Savoyards were stronger in horse by three or four thousand, 
and the army always marched in a body, and kept their par- 
ties in or very near hand. 

I escaped another rub in this French army about five days 
after, which had liked to have made me pay dear for my 
curiosity. 

The Duke de Momorency, and the Mareschal Schomberg 
joined their army about four or five days after, and imme- 
diately, according to the cardinal's instructions, put themselves 
on the march for the relief of Casal. 

The army had marched over a great plain, with some 
marshy grounds on the right, and the Po on the left, and as 
the country was so well discovered that it was thought im- 
possible any mischief should happen, the generals observed 
the less caution. At the end of this plain was a long wood, 
and a lane or narrow defile through the middle of it. 

Through this pass the army was to march, and the van 
began to file through it about four o'clock ; by three hours' 
time all the army was got through, or into the pass, and the 
artillery was just entered, when the Duke of Savoy, with 
four thousand horse, and fifteen hundred dragoons, with every 
horseman a footman behind him, whether he had swam the 
Po, or passed it above at a bridge, and made a long march 
after was not examined, but he came boldly up the plain, and 
charged our rear with a great deal of fury. 

Our artillery was in the lane, and as it was impossible to 
turn them about, and make way for the army, so the rear was 
obliged to support themselves, and maintain the fight for 
above an hour and a half. 

In this time we lost abundance of men, and if it had not 
been for two accidents, all that line had been cut off; one 
was, that the wood was so near that those regiments which 
were disordered presently sheltered themselves in the wood ; 
the other was, that by this time the Mareschal Schomberg, 
with the horse of the van, began to get back through the lane, 

VOL. II. c 



18 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

and to make good the ground from whence the other had been 
beaten, till at last by this means it came to almost a pitched 
battle. 

There were two regiments of French dragoons who did ex- 
cellent service in this action, and maintained their ground till 
they were almost all killed. 

Had the Duke of Savoy contented himself with the defeat 
of five regiments on the right, which he quite broke and drove 
into the wood, and with the slaughter and havoc which he had 
made among the rest, he had come off with honour, and might 
have called it a victory ; but endeavouring to break the whole 
party, and carry off some cannon, the obstinate resistance of 
these few dragoons lost him his advantages, and held him in 
play till so many fresh troops got through the pass again, as 
made us too strong for him ; and had not night parted them 
he had been entirely defeated. 

At last, finding our troops increase and spread themselves 
on his flank, he retired and gave over. We had no great 
stomach to pursue him neither, though some horse were 
ordered to follow a little way. 

The duke lost above a thousand men, and we almost twice 
as many, and but for those dragoons, had lost the whole rear- 
guard and half our cannon. I was in a very sorry case in 
this action too. I was with the rear in the regiment of horse 
of Perigoort, with a captain of which regiment I had contracted 
some acquaintance. I would have rid off at first, as the cap- 
tain desired me, but there was no doing it, for the cannon 
was in the lane, and the horse and dragoons of the van eagerly 
pressing back through the lane, must have run me down, or 
carried me with them. As for the wood, it was a good shelter 
to save one's life, but was so thick there was no passing it on 
horseback. 

Our regiment was one of the first that was broke, and being 
all in confusion, with the Duke of Savoy's men at our heels, 
away we ran into the wood. Never was there so much dis- 
order among a parcel of runaways as when we came to this 
wood ; it was so exceeding bushy and thick at the bottom 
there was no entering it, and a volley of small shot from a 
regiment of Savoy's dragoons, poured in upon us at our 
breaking into the wood, made terrible work among our horses. 

For my part I was got into the wood, but was forced to 
quit my horse, and by that means with a great deal of diffi- 



MARCH TO SALUCES, WHICH SURRENDERS. 19 

culty got a little farther in, where there was a little open 
place, and being quite spent with labouring among the bushes, 
I sat down resolving to take my fate there, let it be what it 
would, for I was not able to go any farther. I had twenty 
or thirty more in the same condition came to me in less than 
half an hour, and here we waited very securely the success of 
the battle, which Was as before. 

It was no small relief to those with me to hear the Savoy- 
ards were beaten, for otherwise they had all been lost; as 
for me, I confess, I was glad as it was, because of the danger, 
but otherwise I cared not much which had the better, for I 
designed no service among them. 

One kindness it did me, that I began to consider what I 
had to do here, and as I could give but a very slender account 
of myself, for what it was I run all these risks, so I resolved 
they should fight it among themselves, for I would come 
among them no more. 

The captain with whom, as I noted above, I had contracted 
some acquaintance in this regiment, was killed in this action, 
and the French had really a great blow here, though they 
took care to conceal it all they could ; and I cannot, without 
smiling, read some of the histories and memoirs of this action, 
which they are not ashamed to call a victory. 

We marched on to Saluces, and the next day the Duke of 
Savoy presented himself in battalia, on the other side of a 
small river; giving us a fair challenge to pass and engage him. 
We always said in our camp that the orders were to fight 
the Duke of Savoy wherever we met him ; but though he 
braved us in our view, we did not care to engage him, but 
we brought Saluces to surrender upon articles, which the 
duke could not relieve without attacking our camp, which he 
did not care to do. 

The next morning we had news of the surrender of Mantua 
to the imperial army ; we heard of it first from the Duke of 
Savoy's cannon, which he fired by way of rejoicing, and 
which seemed to make him amends for the loss of Saluces. 

As this was a mortification to the French, so it quite 
damped the success of the campaign, for the Duke de Momo- 
rency imagining that the imperial general would send imme- 
diate assistance to the Marquis Spinola, who besieged Casal, 
they called frequent counsels of war what course to take, and 
at last resolved to halt in Piedmont. 

c 2 






20 MJMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

A few days after, their resolutions were changed again, by 
the news of the death of the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emanuel, 
who died, as some say, agitated with the extremes of joy and 
grief. 

This put our generals upon considering again, whether 
they should march to the relief of Casal, but the chimera of 
the Germans put them by, and so they took up quarters in 
Piedmont ; they took several small places from the Duke of 
Savoy, making advantage of the consternation the duke's sub- 
jects were in on the death of their prince, and spread them- 
selves from the sea-side to the banks of the Po. 

But here an enemy did that for them which the Savoyards 
could not, for the plague got into their quarters and destroyed 
abundance of people, both of the army and of the country. 

I thought then it was time for me to be gone, for I had no 
manner of courage for that risk ; and I think verily I was 
more afraid of being taken sick in a strange country, than 
ever I was of being killed in battle. Upon this resolution I 
procured a pass to go to Genoa, and accordingly began my 
journey, but was arrested at Villa Franca by a slow linger- 
ing fever, which held me about five days, and then turned to 
a burning malignancy, and at last to the plague. My friend, 
the captain, never left me night nor day; and though for four 
days more I knew nobody, nor was capable of so much as 
thinking of myself, yet it pleased God that the distemper 
gathered in my neck, swelled and broke ; during the swell- 
ing I was raging mad with the violence of pain, which being 
so near my head, swelled that also in proportion, that my 
eyes were swelled up, and for twenty-four hours my tongue 
and mouth ; then, as my servant told me, all the physicians 
gave me over, as past all remedy, but by the good providence 
of God the swelling broke. 

The prodigious collection of matter which this swelling dis- 
charged, gave me immediate relief, and I became sensible in 
less than an hour's time ; and in two hours, or thereabouts, 
fell into a little slumber, which recovered my spirits, and 
sensibly revived me. Here I lay by it till the middle of Sep- 
tember : my captain fell sick after me, but recovered quickly ; 
his man had the plague, and died in two days ; my man held 
it out well. 

About the middle of September, we heard of a truce con- 
cluded between all parties, and being unwilling to winter at 



SPEND THE WINTER AT MJLAN. 



21 



Villa Franca, I got passes, and though we were both weak, 
we began to travel in litters for Milan. 

And here I experienced the truth of an old English pro- 
verb, that standers-by see more than the gamesters. 

The French, Savoyards, and Spaniards, made this peace, or 
truce, all for separate and several grounds, and every one 
were mistaken. 

The French yielded to it because they had given over the 
relief of Casal, and were very much afraid it would fall into 
the hands of the Marquis Spinola. The Savoyards yielded 
to it, because they were afraid the French would winter in 
Piedmont ; the Spaniards yielded to it, because the Duke of 
Savoy being dead, and the Count de Colalto, the imperial 
general, giving no assistance, and his army weakened by sick- 
ness and the fatigues of the siege, he foresaw he should never 
take the town, and wanted but to come off with honour. 

The French were mistaken, because really Spinola was so 
weak, that had they marched on into Montferrat, the Spaniards 
must have raised the siege ; the Duke of Savoy was mistaken, 
because the plague had so weakened the French, that they 
durst not have stayed to winter in Piedmont ; and Spinola was 
mistaken, for though he was very slow, if he had stayed 
before the town one fortnight longer, Thoiras the governor 
must have surrendered, being brought to the last extremity. 

Of all these mistakes the French had the advantage ; for 
Casal was relieved, the army had time to be recruited, and 
the French had the best of it by an early campaign. 

I passed through Montferrat in my way to Milan just as 
the truce was declared, and saw the miserable remains of 
the Spanish army, who by sickness, fatigue, hard duty, the 
sallies of the garrison, and such like consequences, were re- 
duced to less than two thousand men, and of them above a 
thousand lay wounded and sick in the camp. 

Here were several regiments which I saw drawn out to 
their arms, that could not make up above seventy or eighty 
men, officers and all, and those half starved with hunger, 
almost naked, and in a lamentable condition. From thence 
I went into the town, and there things were still in a worse 
condition, the houses beaten down, the walls and works 
ruined, the garrison, by continual duty, reduced from four 
thousand five hundred men, to less than eight hundred, with- 



22 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. 

out clothes, money, or provisions ; the brave governor weak 
with continual fatigue, and the whole face of things in a 
miserable case. 

The French generals had just sent them thirty thousand 
crowns for present supply, which heartened them a little, but 
had not the truce been made as it was, they must have sur- 
rendered upon what terms the Spaniards had pleased to 
make them. 

Never were two armies in such fear of one another with 
so little cause ; the Spaniards afraid of the French whom the 
plague had devoured, and the French afraid of the Spaniards 
whom the siege had almost ruined. 

The grief of this mistake, together with the sense of his 
master, the Spaniards, leaving him without supplies to com- 
plete the siege of Casal, so affected the Marquis Spinola, that 
he died for grief, and in him fell the last of that rare breed of* 
Low Country soldiers, who gave the world so great and just 
a character of the Spanish infantry, as the best soldiers of 
the world ; a character which we see them so very much de- 
generated from since, that they hardly deserve the name of 
soldiers. 

I tarried at Milan the rest of the winter, both for the 
recovery of my health, and also for supplies from England. 

Here it was I first heard the name of Gustavus Adolphus, 
the king of Sweden, who now began his war with the 
emperor ; and while the king of France was at Lyons, the 
league with Sweden was made, in which the French con- 
tributed one million two hundred thousand crowns in 
money, and six hundred thousand per annum to the attempt 
of Gustavus Adolphus. About this time he landed in 
Pomerania, took the towns of Stetin and Straelsund, and 
from thence proceeded in that prodigious manner, of which 
I shall have occasion to be very particular in the prosecution 
of these memoirs. 

I had indeed no thoughts of seeing that king, or his 
armies. I had been so roughly handled already, that I had 
given over the thoughts of appearing among the fighting 
people, and resolved in the spring to pursue my journey to 
Venice, and so for the rest of Italy. 

Yet I cannot deny, that as every gazette gave us some 
accounts of the conquests and victories of this glorious 



• 



DEMORALIZED SOCIETY OF ITALY. 23 

prince, it prepossessed my thoughts with secret wishes of 
seeing him ; but these were so young and unsettled, that I 
drew no resolutions from them for a long while after. 

About the middle of January I left Milan and came to 
.Genoa, from thence by sea to Leghorn, then to Naples, 
Rome, and Venice, but saw nothing in Italy that gave me 
any diversion. 

As for what is modern, I saw nothing but lewdness, 
private murders, stabbing men at the corner of a street, or 
in the dark, hiring of bravoes, and the like; all the diversions 
here ended in whoring, gaming, and sodomy. These were 
to me the modern excellencies of Italy ; and I had no gust 
to antiquities. 

'Twas pleasant indeed when I was at Rome to say, Here 
stood the capitol, there the colossus of Nero, here was the 

amphitheatre of Titus, there the aqueduct of , here the 

forum, there the catacombs, here the temple of Venus, there 
of Jupiter, here the pantheon, and the like, but I never 
designed to write a book ; as much as was useful I kept in 
my head, and for the rest, I left it to others. 

I observed the people degenerated from the ancient 
glorious inhabitants, who were generous, brave, and the 
most valiant of all nations, to a vicious baseness of soul, 
barbarous, treacherous, jealous and revengeful, lewd and 
cowardly, intolerably proud and haughty, bigoted to blind, 
incoherent devotion, and the grossest of idolatry. 

Indeed I think the unsuitableness of the people made the 
place unpleasant to me, for there is so little in a country to 
recommend it when the people disgrace it, that no beauties 
of the creation can make up for the want of those excellen- 
cies which suitable society procure the defect of; this made 
Italy a very unpleasant country to me, the people were the 
foil to the place, all manner of hateful vices reigning in 
their general way of living. 

I confess I was not very religious myself, and being come 
abroad into the world young enough, might easily have been 
drawn into evils that had recommended themselves with any 
tolerable agreeableness to nature and common manners ; but 
when wickedness presented itself full-grown, in its grossest 
freedoms and liberties, it quite took away all the gust of 
vice that the devil had furnished me with, and in this I 



U- 



/ 



24 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

cannot but relate one scene which passed between nobody 
but the devil and myself. 

At a certain town in Italy, which shall be nameless, 
because I won't celebrate the proficiency of one place more 
than another, when I believe the whole country equally 
wicked, I was prevailed upon, rather than tempted, a la 
courtezan. 

If I should describe the woman, I must give a very mean 
character of my own virtue to say I was allured by any but 
a woman of an extraordinary figure ; her face, shape, mien, 
and dress, I may, without vanity, say, the finest that I ever 
saw. When I had admittance into her apartments, the riches 
and magnificence of them astonished me ; the cupboard or 
cabinet of plate, the jewels, the tapestry, and everything in 
proportion, made me question whether I was not in the 
chamber of some lady of the best quality; but when, after 
some conversation, I found that it was really nothing but a 
courtezan, in English, a common street whore, a punk of the 
trade, I was amazed, and my inclination to her person 
began to cool. Her conversation exceeded, if possible, the 
best of quality, and was, I must own, exceeding agreeable ; 
she sung to her lute, and danced as fine as ever I saw, and 
thus diverted me two hours before anything else was dis- 
coursed of; but when the vicious part came on the stage, I 
blush to relate the confusion I was in, and when she made a 
certain motion, by which I understood she might be made 
use of, either as a lady, or as I was quite thunder- 
struck, all the vicious part of my thoughts vanished, the 
place filled me with horror, and I was all over disorder and 
distraction. 

I began however to recollect where I was, and that in this 
country these were people not to be affronted ; and though 
she easily saw the disorder I was in, she turned it off with 
admirable dexterity, began to talk again a la gallant, received 
me as a visitant, offered me sweetmeats and some wine. 

Here I began to be in more confusion than before, for I 
concluded she would neither offer me to eat or to drink now 
without poison, and I was very shy of tasting her treat ; but 
she scattered this fear immediately, by readily, and of her 
own accord, not only tasting but eating freely of everything 
she gave me; whether she perceived my wariness, or the 



SINGULAR ADVENTURE. 



25 



reason of it, I know not, I could not help banishing my 
suspicion, the obliging carriage and strange charm of her 
conversation had so much power of me, that I both eat and 
drank with her at all hazards. 

When I offered to go, and at parting presented her five 
pistoles, I could not prevail with her to take them, when she 
spoke some Italian proverb which I could not readily under- 
stand, but by my guess it seemed to imply, that she would 
not take the pay, having not obliged me otherwise : at last I 
laid the pieces on her toilette, and would not receive them 
again ; upon which she obliged me to pass my word to visit 
her again, else she would by no means accept my present. 

I confess I had a strong inclination to visit her again, and 
besides thought myself obliged to it in honour to my parole ; 
but after some strife in my thoughts about it, I resolved to 
break my word with her, when, going at vespers one evening 
to see their devotions, I happened to meet this very lady 
very devoutly going to her prayers. 

At her coming out of the church I spoke to her, she paid 
me her respects with a " Signior Inglese," and some words 
she said in Spanish smiling, which I did not understand. I 
cannot say here so clearly as I would be glad I might, that 
I broke my word with her ; but if I saw her any more, I 
saw nothing of what gave me so much offence before. 

The end of my relating this story is answered in describing 
the manner of their address, without bringing myself to 
confession ; if I did anything I have some reason to be 
ashamed of, it may be a less crime to conceal it than expose 
it. 

The particulars related, however, may lead the reader of 
these sheets to a view of what gave me a particular disgust 
at this pleasant part of the world, as they pretend to call it, 
and made me quit the place sooner than travellers use to do 
that come thither to satisfy their curiosity. 

The prodigious stupid bigotry of the people also was 
irksome to me ; I thought there was something in it very 
sordid. The entire empire the priests have over both the 
souls and bodies of the people, gave me a specimen of that 
meanness .of spirit, which is nowhere else to be seen but in 
Italy, especially in the city of Rome. 

At Venice I perceived it quite different, the civil authority 
having a visible superiority over the ecclesiastic ; and the 



26 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

church being more subject there to the state than in any 
other part of Italy. 

For these reasons I took no pleasure in filling my memoirs 
of Italy with remarks of places or things ; all the antiquities 
and valuable remains of the Roman nation are done better 
than I can pretend to, by such people who made it more 
their business ; as for me, I went to see, and not to write, 
and as little thought then ot these memoirs, as I ill furnished 
myself to write them. 



CHAPTER in. 

ARRIVE AT VIENNA ACCOUNT 'OF THE WAR IN GERMANY 

OF THE FAMOUS CONCLUSIONS OF LEIPSIC — JOURNEY 

FROM VIENNA TO PRAGUE DREADFUL STORM OF MAGDE- 

BURGH, AND CRUELTIES OF THE IMPERIAL SOLDIERS 1 

LEAVE THE EMPEROR'S SERVICE IN DISGUST, AND ARRIVE 
AT LEIPSIC ACCOUNT OF AFFAIRS THERE. 

I left Italy in April, and taking the tour of Bavaria, 
though very much out of the way, I passed through Munich, 
Passau, Lintz, and at last to Vienna. 

I came to Vienna the 10th of April, 1631, intending to 
have gone from thence down the Danube into Hungary, 
and by means of a pass which I obtained from the English 
ambassador at Constantinople, I designed to have seen all 
the great towns on the Danube, which were then in the 
hands of the Turks, and which I had read much of in the 
history of the war between the Turks and the Germans ; but 
I was diverted from my design by the following occasion. 

There had been a long bloody war in the empire, of 
Germany for twelve years, between the emperor, the Duke 
of Bavaria, the King of Spain, and the popish princes and 
electors on the one side, and the protestant princes on the 
other ; and both sides having been exhausted by the war, 
and even the catholics themselves beginning to dislike the 
growing power of the house of Austria, 'twas thought all the 
parties were willing to make peace. 

Nay, things were brought to that pass that some of the 
popish princes and electors began to talk of making alliances 
with the King of Sweden. 



WAR IN GERMANY. 27 

Here it is necessary to observe, that the two Dukes of 
Mecklenburgh having been dispossessed of most of their 
dominions by the tyranny of the Emperor Ferdinand, and 
being in danger of losing the rest, earnestly solicited the 
King of Sweden to come to their assistance ; and that 
prince, as he was related to the house of Mecklenburgh, and 
especially as he was willing to lay hold of any opportunity 
to break with the emperor, against whom he had laid up an 
implacable prejudice, was very ready and forward to come to 
their assistance. 

The reasons of his quarrel with the emperor were grounded 
upon the imperialists concerning themselves in the war of 
Poland, where the emperor had sent eight thousand foot and 
two thousand horse to join the Polish army against the king, 
and had thereby given some check to his arms in that 
war. 

In pursuance therefore of his resolution to quarrel with 
the emperor, but more particularly at the instances of the 
princes above named, his Swedish majesty had landed the 
year before at Straelsund with about twelve thousand men, 
and having joined with some forces which he had left in 
Polish Prussia, all which did not make thirty thousand men, 
he began a war with the "emperor, the greatest in event, filled 
with the most famous battles, sieges, and extraordinary 
actions, including its wonderful success and happy conclusion, 
of any war ever maintained in the world. 

The King of Sweden had already taken Stetin, Straelsund, 
Rostock, Wismar, and all the strong places on the Baltic, 
and began to spread himself in Germany ; he had made a 
league with the French, as I observed in my story of Saxony ; 
he had now made a treaty with the Duke of Brandenburgh, 
and, in short, began to be terrible to the empire. 

In this conjecture the empire called the general diet of the 
empire to be held at Ratisbon, where, as was pretended, all 
sides were to treat of peace, and to join forces to beat the 
Swedes out of the empire. Here the emperor, by a most 
exquisite management, brought the aiFairs of the diet to a 
conclusion, exceedingly to his own advantage, and to the 
farther oppression of the protestants; and in particular, 
in that the war against the King of Sweden was to be 
carried on in such a manner that the whole burthen and 



28 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

charge would lie on the protestants themselves, and they be 
made the instruments to oppose their best friends. Other 
matters also ended equally to their disadvantage, as the 
methods resolved on to recover the church lands, and to 
prevent the education of the protestant clergy; and what 
remained was referred to another general diet to be held at 
Frankfort-au-main, in August, 1631. 

I won't pretend to say the other protestant princes of 
Germany had never made any overtures to the King of 
Sweden to come to their assistance, but it is plain that they 
had entered into no league with him ; that appears from the 
difficulties which retarded the fixing of the treaties afterwards, 
both with the Dukes of Brandenburgh and Saxony, which 
unhappily occasioned the ruin of Magdeburgh. 

But it is plain the Swede was resolved on a war with the 
emperor ; his Swedish majesty might, and indeed could not 
but foresee, that if he once showed himself with a sufficient 
force on the frontiers of the empire, all the protestant princes 
would be obliged by their interest or by his arms to fall in 
with him, and this the consequence made appear to be a just 
conclusion; for the electors of Brandenburgh and Saxony 
were both forced to join with him. 

First, they were willing to join with him, at least they 
could not find in their hearts to join with the emperor, of 
whose powers they had such just apprehensions ; they wished 
the Swedes success, and would have been very glad to have 
had the work done at another man's charge ; but like true 
Germans they were more willing to be saved than to save 
themselves, and therefore hung back and stood upon terms. 

Secondly, they were at last forced to it; the first was 
forced to join by the King of Sweden himself, who being 
come so far was not to be dallied with ; and had not the 
Duke of Brandenburgh complied as he did, he had been 
ruined by the Swede ; the Saxon was driven into the arms 
of the Swede by force, for Count Tilly, ravaging his country, 
made him comply with any terms to be saved from destruc- 
tion. 

Thus matters stood at the end of the diet at Ratisbon ; the 
King of Sweden began to see himself leagued against at the 
diet both by protestant and papist; and, as I have often 
heard his majesty say since, he had resolved to try to force 



ORIGINAL CAUSES OF THE WAR. 



29 



fhem off from the emperor, and to treat them as enemies 
equally with the rest if they did not. 

But the protestants convinced him soon after, that though 
they were tricked into the outward appearance of a league 
against him at Ratisbon, they had no such intentions ; and 
by their ambassadors to him let him know, that they only 
wanted his powerful assistance to defend their councils, when 
they would soon convince him that they had a due sense of 
the emperor's designs, and would do their utmost for their 
liberty ; and these I take to be the first invitations the King 
of Sweden had to undertake the protestant cause as such, 
and which entitled him to say he fought for the liberty and 
religion of the German nation. 

I have had some particular opportunities to hear these 
things from the mouths of some of the very princes them- 
selves, and therefore am the forwarder to relate them ; and I 
place them here, because previous to the part I acted on 
this bloody scene, it is necessary to let the reader into some 
part of the story, and to show him in what manner and on 
what occasions this terrible war began. 

The protestants, alarmed at the usage they had met with 
at the former diet, had secretly proposed among themselves 
to form a general union or confederacy, for preventing that 
ruin which they saw, unless some speedy remedies were ap- 
plied, would be inevitable. The elector of Saxony, the head 
of the protestants, a vigorous and politic prince, was the first 
that moved it ; and the landgrave of Hesse, a zealous and 
gallant prince, being consulted with, it rested a great while 
between those two, no method being found practicable to 
bring it to pass ; the emperor being so powerful in all parts, 
that they foresaw the petty princes would not dare to nego- 
tiate an affair of such a nature, being surrounded with the 
imperial forces, who by their two generals Wallestein and 
Tilly, kept them in continual subjection and terror. 

This dilemma had like to have stifled the thoughts of the 
union as a thing impracticable, when one Seigensras, a 
Lutheran minister, a person of great abilities, and one whom 
the elector of Saxony made great use of in matters of policy 
as well as religion, contrived for them this excellent ex- 
pedient. 

I had the honour to be acquainted with this gentleman 
while I was at Leipsic ; it pleased him exceedingly to have 



30 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

been the contriver of so fine a structure as the conclusions of 
Leipsic, and he was glad to be entertained on that subject. I 
nad the relation from his own mouth, when, but very 
modestly, he told me he thought it was an inspiration darted 
on a sudden into his thoughts, when the Duke of Saxony 
calling him into his closet one morning with a face full of 
concern, shaking his head and looking very earnestly : What 
will become of us, doctor ? said the duke, we shall all be un- 
done at Frankl'ort-au-main. Why so, please your highness? 
says the doctor. Why, they will fight with the King of 
Sweden with our armies and our money, says the duke, and 
devour our friends and ourselves, by the help of our friends 
and ourselves. But what is become of the confederacy then, 
said the doctor, which your highness had so happily framed 
in your thoughts, and which the landgrave of Hesse was so 
pleased with ? Become of it, says the duke, it is a good 
thought enough, but it is impossible to bring it to pass among 
so many members of the protestant princes as are to be con- 
sulted with, for we neither have time to treat, nor will half 
of them dare to negotiate the matter, the Imperialists being 
quartered in their very bowels. But may not some expedient 
be found out, says the doctor, to bring them all together 
to treat of it in a general meeting ? It is well proposed, says 
the duke, but in what town or city shall they assemble, 
where the very deputies shall not be besieged by Tilly or 
Wallestein in fourteen days time, and sacrificed to the cruelty 
and fury of the emperor Ferdinand ? Will your highness be 
the easier in it, replies the doctor, if a way may be found 
out to call such an assembly upon other causes, at which the 
emperor may have no umbrage, and perhaps give his assent? 
You know the diet at Frankfort is at hand ; it is necessary 
the protestants should have an assembly of their own, to 
prepare matters for the general diet, and it may be no 
difficult matter to obtain it. The duke, surprised with joy 
at the motion, embraced the doctor with an extraordinary 
transport. Thou hast done it, doctor, said he, and immedi- 
ately caused him to draw a form of a letter to the emperor, 
which he did with the utmost dexterity of style, in which he 
was a great master, representing to his imperial majesty, 
that in order to put an end to the troubles of Germany, his 
majesty would be pleased to permit the protestant princes of 
the empire to hold a diet to themselves, to consider ot such 



PROTESTANTS CONCLUSIONS FOR MUTUAL DEFENCE. 31 

matters as they were to treat of at the general diet, in order 
to conform themselves to the will and pleasure of his imperial 
majesty, to drive out foreigners, and settle a lasting peace in 
the empire ; he also insinuated something of their resolutions 
unanimously to give their suffrages in favour of the King of 
Hungary, at the election of a king of the Romans, a thing 
which he knew the emperor had in his thought, and would 
push at with all his might at the diet. This letter was sent, 
and the bait so neatly concealed, that the electors of Bavaria 
and Mentz, the King of Hungary, and several of the popish 
princes, not foreseeing that the ruin of them all lay in the 
bottom of it, foolishly advised the emperor to consent to it. 

In consenting to this the emperor signed his own de- 
struction, for here began the conjunction of the German 
protestants with the Swede, which was the fatalest blow to 
Ferdinand, and which he could never recover. 

Accordingly the diet was held at Leipsic, February 8th, 
1630; where the protestants agreed on several heads for 
their mutual defence, which were the grounds of the follow- 
ing war ; these were the famous conclusions of Leipsic, 
which so alarmed the emperor and the whole empire, that to 
crush it in the beginning, the emperor commanded Count 
Tilly immediately to fall upoi. the Landgrave of Hesse, and 
the Duke of Saxony, as the principal heads of the union ; 
but it was too late. 

The conclusions were digested into ten heads : 

1. That since their sins had brought God's judgments upon 
the whole protestant church, they should command public 
prayers to be made to Almighty God for the diverting the 
calamities that attended them. 

2. That a treaty of peace might be set on foot, in order to 
come to a right understanding with the catholic princes. 

3. That a time for such a treaty being obtained, they should 
appoint an assembly of delegates, to meet preparatory to the 
treaty. 

4. That all their complaints should be humbly represented 
to his imperial majesty, and the catholic electors, in order to 
a peaceable accommodation. 

5. That they claim the protection of the emperor, accord- 
ing to the laws of the empire, and the present emperor's solemn 
oath and promise. 

6. That they would appoint deputies who should meet at 



32 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

certain times to consult of their common interest, uid wno 
should be always empowered to conclude of what should be 
thought needful for their safety. 

7. That they will raise a competent force to maintain and 
defend their liberties, rights, and religion. 

8. That it is agreeable to the constitution of the empire, 
concluded in the diet at Augsburg, to do so. 

9. That the arming for their necessary defence shall by no 
means hinder their obedience to his imperial majesty, but that 
they will still continue tLeir loyalty to him. 

10. They agree to proportion their forces which in all 
amounted to seventy thou jand men. 

The emperor, exceedingly startled at the conclusions, issued 
out a severe proclamation, or ban against them, which im- 
ported much the same thmg g*s a declaration of war, and 
commanded Tilly to begiu f and "u^mediately to fall on the 
duke of Saxony, with all thv fury imaginable, as I have al- 
ready observed. 

Here began the flame to break jot.t ; for upon the emperor's 
ban, the protestants send away to the king of Sweden for 
succour. 

His Swedish majesty had already conquered Mecklenburgh, 
and part of Pomerania, and was advancing with his vicio- 
ious troops, increased by the addition of some regiments 
raised in those parts, in order to carry on the war against 
the emperor, having designed to follow up the Oder into Si- 
lesia, and so to push the war home to the emperor's heredi- 
tary countries of Austria and Bohemia, when the first mes- 
sengers came to him in this case; but this changed his 
measures, and brought him to the frontiers of Brandenburgh, 
resolved to answer the desires of the protestants. But here 
the duke of Brandenburgh began to halt, making some diffi- 
culties and demanding terms which drove the king to use 
some extremities with him, and stopt the Swedes for a while, 
who had otherwise been on the banks of the Elbe, as soon as 
Tilly the imperial general had entered Saxony, which if they 
had done, the miserable destruction of Magdeburgh had been 
prevented, as I observed before. 

The king had been invited into the union, and when h . 
first came back from the banks of the Oder, he had accepted 
it, and was preparing to back it with all his power. 

The duke of Saxony had already a good army, which he 



JOURNEY FROM VIENNA TO PRAGUE. 33 

had with infinite diligence recruited, and mustered them under 
the cannon at Leipsic. The king of Sweden having, by his 
ambassador at Leipsic, entered into the union of the protes- 
tants, was advancing victoriously to their aid, just as Count 
Tilly had entered the duke of Saxony's dominions. The fame 
of the Swedish conquests, and of the hero who commanded 
them, shook my resolution of travelling into Turkey, being 
resolved to see the conjunction of the protestant armies, and 
before the fire was broke out too far, to take the advantage 
of seeing both sides. 

While I remained at Vienna, uncertain which way I should 
proceed, I remember I observed they talked of the king of 
Sweden as a prince of no consideration, one that they might 
let go on and tire himself in Mecklenburgh, and thereabout, 
till they could find leisure to deal with him, and then might 
be crushed as they pleased ; but 'tis never safe to despise an 
enemy, so this was not an enemy to be despised, as they af- 
terwards found. 

As to the conclusions of Leipsic, indeed at first they gave 
the imperial court some uneasiness, but when they found the 
imperial armies began to fright the members out of the union, 
and that the several branches had no considerable forces on 
foot, it was the general discourse at Vienna, that the union 
at Leipsic only gave the emperor an opportunity to crush ab- 
solutely the dukes of Sar.ony, Brandenburgh, and the land- 
grave of Hesse, and they looked upon it as a thing certain. 

I never saw any real concern in their faces at Vienna, till 
news came to court that the king of Sweden had entered 
into the union ; but as th is made them very uneasy, they be- 
gan to move the powerf llest methods possible to divert this 
storm ; and upon this news Tilly was hastened to fall into 
Saxony before this mron could proceed to a conjunction of 
forces. This was certainly a very good resolution, and no 
measure could have been more exactly concerted had not the 
diligence of the Saxo as prevented it. 

The gathering of t his storm, which from a cloud began to 
spread over the empi? e, and from the little duchy of Mecklen- 
burgh, began to threaten all Germany, absolutely determined 
me, as I noted befon >, as to travelling ; and laying aside the 
thoughts of Hungary, I resolved, if possible, to see the king 
of Sweden's army. 

I parted from Vie ana the middle of May, and took post for 

VOL. II. D 



34 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 






Great Glogau in Silesia, as if I had purposed to pass into 
Poland, but designing indeed to go down the Oder, to Cus- 
trin, in the marquisate of Brandenburgh, and so to Berlin ; 
but when I came to the frontiers of Silesia, though I had 
passes I could go no farther, the guards on all the frontiers 
were so strict ; so I was obliged to come back into Bohemia, 
and went to Prague. 

From hence I found I could easily pass through the impe- 
rial provinces, to the Lower Saxony, and accordingly took 
passes for Hamburgh, designing however to use them no far- 
ther than I found occasion. 

By virtue of these passes I got into the imperial army, 
under Count Tilly, then at the siege of Magdeburgh, May the 
2nd. 

I confess I did not foresee the fate of this city, neither I 
believe did Count Tilly himself expect to glut his fury with 
so entire a desolation, much less did the people expect it. I 
did believe they must capitulate, and I perceived by discourse 
in the army, that Tilly would give them but very indifferent 
conditions ; but it fell out otherwise. The treaty of surren- 
der was as it were begun, nay some say concluded, when 
some of the outguards of the imperialists finding the citizens 
had abandoned the guards of the works, and looked to them- 
selves with less diligence than usual, they broke in, carried a 
half-moon sword in hand with little resistance ; and though 
it was a surprise on both sides, the citizens neither fearing, 
nor the army expecting the occasion, the garrison, with as 
much resolution as could be expected under such a fright, flew 
to the walls, twice beat the imperialists off, but fresh men 
coming up, and the administrator of Magdeburgh himself 
being wounded and taken, the enemy broke in, took the city 
by storm, and entered with such terrible fury, that without 
respect to age or condition, they put all the garrison and in- 
habitants, man, woman, and child, to the sword, plundered 
the city, and when they had done this, set it on fire. 

This calamity sure was the dreadfulest sight that ever I 
saw ; the rage of the imperial soldiers was most intolerable, 
and not to be expressed ; of twenty-five thousand, some said 
thirty thousand people, there was not a soul to be seen alive, 
till the flames drove those that were hid in vaults and secret 
places to seek death in the streets, rather than perish 
in the fire. Of these miserable creatures some were killed 



STORM OF MAGDEBURGH. 35 

too by the furious soldiers, but at last they saved the lives of 
such as came out of their cellars and holes, and so about two 
thousand poor desperate creatures were left ; the exact num- 
ber of those that perished in this city could never be known, 
because those the soldiers had first butchered, the flames after- 
wards devoured. M 

I was on the other side of the Elbe when this dreadful 
piece of butchery was done ; the city of Magdeburg had a 
sconce or fort over against it, called the toll-house, which 
joined to the city by a very fine bridge of boats. 

This fort was taken by the imperialists a few days before, 
and having a mind to see it, and the rather because from 
thence I could have a very good view of the city, I was gone 
over Tilly's bridge of boats to view this fort. About ten 
o'clock in the morning I perceived they were storming by the 
firing, and immediately all ran to the works ; I little thought 
of the taking the city, but imagined it might be some out- 
work attacked, for we all expected the city would surrender 
that day, or next, and they might have capitulated upon very 
good terms. 

Being upon the works of the fort, on a sudden I heard the 
dreadfulest cry raised in the city that can be imagined ; 'tis 
not possible to express the manner of it, and I could see the 
women and children running about the streets in a most 
lamentable condition. 

The city wall did not run along the side where the river 
was with so great a height, but we could plainly see the mar- 
ket-place and the several streets which run down to the river. 
In about an hour's time after this first cry all was in confusion ; 
there was little shooting, the execution was all cutting of 
throats, and mere house murders ; the resolute garrison, with 
the brave Baron Falconberg fought it out to the last, and were 
cut in pieces, and by this time the imperial soldiers having 
broke open the gates and entered on all sides, the slaughter 
was very dreadful. We could see the poor people in crowds 
driven down the streets, flying from the fury of the soldiers, 
who followed butchering them as fast as they could, and re- 
fused mercy to anybody ; 'till driving them to the river's edge, 
the desperate wretches would throw themselves into the river, 
where thousands of them perished, especially women and chil- 
dren. Several men that could swim got over to our side, 
where the soldiers, not heated with fight, gave them quarter, 

D 2 



36 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

and took them up ; and I cannot but do this justice to the 
German officers in the fort, they had five small flat boats, and 
they gave leave to the soldiers to go off in them, and get what 
booty they could, but charged them not to kill anybody, but 
take them all prisoners. 

Nor was their humanity ill rewarded; for the soldiers, 
wisely avoiding those places where their fellows were em- 
ployed in butchering the miserable people, rowed to other 
places, where crowds of people stood crying out for help, and 
expecting to be every minute either drowned or murdered ; 
of these at sundry times they fetched over near six hundred, 
but took care to take in none but such as offered them good 

Pay- 
Never was money or jewels of greater service than now, 
for those that had anything of that sort to offer were 
soonest helped. 

There was a burgher of the town, who seeing a boat coming 
near him, but out of his call, by the help of a speaking trumpet, 
told the soldiers in it he would give them twenty thousand 
dollars to fetch him off; they rowed close to the shore, and 
got him with his wife and six children into the boat, but such 
throngs of people got about the boat that had like to have 
sunk her, so that the soldiers were fain to drive a great many 
out again by main force, and while they were doing this, some 
of the enemies coming down the street desperately drove them 
all into the water. 

The boat, however, brought the burgher and his wife and 
children safe ; and though they had not all that wealth about 
them, yet in jewels and money he gave them so much as made 
all the fellows very rich. 

I cannot pretend to describe the cruelty of this day, the 
town by five in the afternoon was all on a flame ; the wealth 
consumed was inestimable, and a loss to the very conquerer. 
I think there was little or nothing left but the great church, 
and about one hundred houses. 

This was a sad welcome into the army for me, and gave me 
a horror and aversion to the emperor's people, as well as to 
his cause. I quitted the camp the third day after this execu- 
tion, while the fire was hardly out in the city ; and from thence 
getting safe conduct to pass into the Palatinate, I turned out 
of the road at a small village on the Elbe, called Emerfield, 
and by ways and towns I can give but small account of. 



CRUELTIES OF THE IMPERIAL SOLDIERS. 37 

having a boor for our guide, whom we could hardly under- 
stand, I arrived at Leipsic on the 17 th of May. 

We found the elector intense upon the strengthening of 
his army, but the people, in the greatest terror imaginable, 
every day expecting Tilly with the German army, who, by his 
cruelty at Magdeburgh, was become so dreadful to the protes- 
tants, that they expected no mercy wherever he came. 

The emperor's power was made so formidable to all the 
protestants, particularly since the diet at Katisbon left them 
in a worse case than it found them, that they had not only 
formed the conclusions of Leipsic, which all men looked on 
as the effect of desperation rather than any probable means 
of their deliverance, but had privately implored the protection 
and assistance of foreign powers, and particularly the king of 
Sweden, from whom they had promises of a speedy and power- 
ful assistance. And truly if the Swede had not with a very 
strong hand rescued them, all their conclusions at Leipsic had 
served to hasten their ruin. I remember very well, when I 
was in the imperial army, they discoursed with such contempt 
of the forces of the protestants, that not only the imperialists, 
but the protestants themselves gave them up as lost; the 
emperor had no less than two hundred thousand men in 
several armies on foot, who most of them were on the back 
of the protestants in every corner. If Tilly did but write a 
threatening letter to any city or prince of the union, they 
presently submitted, renounced the conclusions of Leipsic, and 
received imperial garrisons, as the cities of Ulm and Memingen, 
the duchy of Wirtemburgh, and several others, and almost 
all Suaben. 

Only the duke of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse 
upheld the drooping courage of the protestants, and refused 
all terms of peace ; slighted all the threatenings of the imperial 
generals, and the duke of Brandenburgh was brought in after- 
wards almost by force. 

The Duke of Saxony mustered his forces under the walls 
of Leipsic, and I, having returned to Leipsic two days before, 
saw them pass the review. The duke, gallantly mounted, 
rode through the ranks, attended by his fieldmarshal 
Arnheim, and seemed mighty well pleased with them, and 
indeed the troops made a very fine appearance ; but I that 
had seen Tilley's army, and his old weather-beaten soldiers, 
whose discipline and exercises were so exact, and their 



38 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

courage so often tried, could not look on the Saxon army 
without some concern for them, when I considered who they 
had to deal with. Tilly's men were rugged surly fellows, 
their faces had an air of hardy courage, mangled with 
wounds, and scars, their armour showed the bruises of 
musket bullets, and the rust of the winter storms. I observed 
of them their clothes were always dirty, but their arms were 
clean and bright ; they were used to camp in the open fields, 
and sleep in the frosts and rain ; their horses were strong 
and hardy like themselves, and well taught their exercises. 
The soldiers knew their business so exactly that general 
orders were enough ; every private man was fit to command, 
and their wheelings, marchings, counter-marchings, and 
exercise were done with such order and readiness, that the 
distinct words of command were hardly of any use among 
them ; they were flushed with victory, and hardly knew what 
it was to fly. 

There had passed messages between Tilley and the duke, 
and he gave always such ambigious answers as he thought 
might serve to gain time ; but Tilley was not to be put off 
with words, and drawing his army towards Saxony, sends 
four propositions to him to sign, and demands an immediate 
reply. The propositions were positive, 

1. To cause his troops to enter into the emperor's service, 
and to march in person with them against the King of 
Sweden. 

2. To give the imperial army quarters in his country, and 
supply them with necessary provisions. 

3. To relinquish the union of Leipsic, and disown the ten 
conclusions. 

4. To make restitution of the goods and lands of the 
church. 

The duke being pressed by Tilly's trumpeter for an 
immediate answer, sat all night, and part of the next day, 
in council with his privy councillors, debating what reply to 
give him, which at last was concluded, in short, that he would 
live and die in defence of the Protestant religion, and the 
conclusions of Leipsic, and bade Tilly defiance. 

The die being thus cast, he immediately decamped with 
his whole army for Torgau, fearing that Tilly should get 
there before him, and so prevent his conjunction with the 
Swede. The duke had not yet concluded any positive treaty 



ACCOUNT OF AFFAIRS AT LEIPSIC. 39 

with the King of Swedeland, and the Duke of Brandenburgh 
having made some difficulty of joining, they both stood on 
some niceties till they had like to have ruined themselves 
all at once. 

Brandenburgh had given up the town of Spandau to the 
king by a former treaty to secure a retreat for his army, and 
the king was advanced as far as Frankfort upon the Oder, 
when on a sudden some small difficulties arising, Branden- 
burgh seems cold in the matter, and with a sort of indiffer- 
ence demands to have his town of Spandau restored to him 
again. G-ustavus Adolphus, who began presently to imagine 
the duke had made his peace with the emperor, and so would 
either be his enemy, or pretend a neutrality, generously 
delivered him his town of Spandau ; but immediately turns 
about, and with his whole army besieges him in his capital 
city of Berlin. This brought the duke to know his error, 
and by the interpositions of the ladies, the Queen of Sweden 
being the duke's sister, the matter was accommodated, and 
the duke joined his forces with the king. 

But the Duke of Saxony had like to have been undone by 
this delay; for the imperialists, under Count de Furstem- 
burgh, were entered his country, and had possessed them- 
selves of Halle, and Tilly was on his march to join him, as 
he afterwards did, and, ravaging the whole country, laid 
siege to Leipsic itself; the duke, driven to this extremity, 
rather flies to the Swede than treats with him, and on the 
second of September the duke's army joined with the King ot 
Sweden. 

I had not come to Leipsic but to see the Duke of Saxony's 
army, and that being marched as I have said for Torgau, I 
had no business there ; but if I had, the approach of Tilly and 
the imperial army was enough to hasten me away, for I had 
no occasion to be besieged there ; so on the 27th of August 
I left the town, as several of the principal inhabitants had 
done before, and more would have done had not the governor 
published a proclamation against it ; and besides they knew 
not whither to fly, for all places were alike exposed. The 
poor people were under dreadful apprehensions of a siege, and 
of the merciless usage of the imperial soldiers, the example 
of Magdeburgh being fresh before them, the duke and his 
army gone from them, and the town, though well furnished, 
but indifferently fortified. 



40 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

' In this condition I left them, buying up stores of provisions, 
working hard to scour their moats, set up palisadoes, repair 
their fortifications, and preparing all things for a siege ; and 
following the Saxon army to Torgau, I continued in the 
camp till a few days before they joined the King of Sweden. 

I had much ado to persuade my companion from entering 
into the service of the Duke of Saxony, one of whose colonels, 
with whom we had contracted a particular acquaintance, 
offering him a commission to be cornet in one of the old 
regiments of horse ; but the difference I had observed between 
this new army and Tilly's old troops had made such an 
impression on me, that I confess I had yet no manner of 
inclination for the service ; and therefore persuaded him to 
wait a while till we had seen a little farther into affairs, and 
particularly till we had seen the Swedish army, which we 
had heard so much of. 

The difficulties which the elector Duke of Saxony made of 
joining with the king were made up by a treaty concluded 
with the king, on the 2nd of September, at Coswick, a small 
town on the Elbe, whither the king's army was arrived the 
night before ; for General Tilly being now entered into the 
duke's country, had plundered and ruined all the lower part 
of it, and was now actually besieging the capital city of Leip- 
sic. These necessities made almost any conditions easy to him ; 
the greatest difficulty was that the King of Sweden demanded 
the absolute command of the army, which the 'duke submitted 
to with less good will than he had reason to do, the king's 
experience and conduct considered. 



CHAPTER IV. 

I QUIT THE SAXON CAMP, AND JOIN THE SWEDISH ARMY 

DISCIPLINE OF THE SWEDES MY COMRADE ENTERS THE 

SWEDISH SERVICE SIR JOHN HEPBURN INTRODUCES ME 

TO THE KING HIS CONVERSATION 1 ENTER INTO THE 

SERVICE BATTLE WITH TILLY'S ARMY, WHO IS COM- 
PLETELY DEFEATED THE CAMP GIVEN UP TO PLUNDER. 

I had not patience to attend the conclusions of their par- 
ticular treaties, but as soon as ever the passage was clear I 



QUIT THE SAXON AND JOIN THE SWEDISH ARMY. 41 



quitted the Saxon camp, and went to see the Swedish army. 
I fell in with the out-guards of the Swedes at a little town 
called Beltsig, on the river Wersa, just as they were relieving 
the guards, and going to march ; and, having a pass from the 
English ambassador, was very well received by the officer 
who changed the guards, and with him I went back into the 
army. By nine in the morning the army was in full march, 
the king himself at the head of them on a grey pad, and, 
riding from one brigade to another, ordered the march of 
every line himself. 

When I saw the Swedish troops, their exact discipline, 
their order, the modesty and familiarity of their officers, and 
the regular living of the soldiers, their camp seemed a well 
ordered city ; the meanest countrywoman with her market- 
ware was as safe from violence as in the streets of Vienna. 
There were no regiments of whores and rags as followed the 
imperialists ; nor any woman in the camp, but such as being 
known to the provosts to be the wives of the soldiers, who 
were necessary for washing linen, taking care of the soldiers' 
clothes, and dressing their victuals. 

The soldiers were, well clad, not gay, furnished with 
excellent arms, and exceeding careful of them ; and though 
they did not seem so terrible as I thought Tilly's men did 
when I first saw them, yet the figure they made, together 
with what we had heard of them, made them seem to me 
invincible. The discipline and order of their marchings, 
camping, and exercise was excellent and singular, and which 
was to be seen in no armies but the king's, his own skill, 
judgment, and vigilance, having added much to the general 
conduct of armies then in use. 

As I met the Swedes on their march I had no opportunity 
to acquaint myself with anybody, till after the conjunction 
of the Saxon army, and then it being but four days to the 
great battle of Leipsic, our acquaintance was but small, 
saving what fell out accidently by conversation. 

I met with several gentlemen in the king's army who 
spoke English very well, besides that there were three 
regiments of Scots in the army; the colonels whereof I 
found were extraordinarily esteemed by the king; as the 
Lord Rea, Colonel Lumsdell, and Sir John Hepburn. The 
latter of these, after I had by an accident become acquainted, 
with, I found had been for many years acquainted with my 



42 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

father, and on that account I received a great deal of civility 
from him, which afterwards grew into a kind of intimate 
friendship. He was a complete soldier indeed, and for that 
reason so well-beloved by that gallant king, that he hardly 
knew how to go about any great action without him. 

It was impossible for me now to restrain my young 
comrade from entering into the Swedish service, and indeed 
everything was so inviting that I could not blame him. A 
captain in Sir John Hepburn's regiment had picked acquaint- 
ance with him, and he having as much gallantry in his face 
as real courage in his heart, the captain had persuaded him 
to take service, and promised to use his interest to get him a 
company in the Scotch brigade, I had made him promise me 
not to part from me in my travels without my consent, which 
was the only obstacle to his desires of entering into the 
Swedish pay; and being one evening in the captain's tent 
with him, and discoursing very freely together, the captain 
asked him very short, but friendly, and looking earnestly at 
me, Is this the gentleman, Mr. Fielding, that has done so 
much prejudice to the king of Sweden's service? I was 
doubly surprised at the expression, and at the colonel, Sir 
John Hepburn, coming at that very moment into the tent ; 
the colonel hearing something of the question, but knowing 
nothing of the reason of it, any more than as I seemed a 
little to concern myself at it ; yet after the ceremony due to 
his character was over, would needs know what I had done 
to hinder his majesty's service. So much truly, says the 
captain, that if his majesty knew it, he would think himself 
very little beholden to him. I am sorry, sir, said I, that I 
should offend in anything, who am but a stranger; but if 
you would please to inform me, I would endeavour to alter 
anything in my behaviour that is prejudicial to any one, 
much less to his majesty's service. I shall take you at your 
word, sir, says the captain ; the king of Sweden, sir, has a 
particular request to you. I should be glad to know two 
things, sir, said I; first, how that can be possible, since I am 
not yet known to any man in the army, much less to his 
majesty? and secondly, what the request can be? Why, 
sir, his majesty desires you would not hinder this gentleman 
from entering into his service, who it seems desires nothing 
more, if he may have your consent to it. I have too much 
honour for his majesty, returned I, to deny anything which 



MY COMRADE ENTERS THE SWEDISH SERVICE. 



43 



he pleases to command me ; but methinks it is some hard- 
ship, you should make that the king's order, which it is very 
probable he knows nothing of. Sir John Hepburn took the 
case up something gravely, and drinking a glass of Leipsic 
beer to the captain, said, Come, captain, don't press these 
gentlemen ; the king desires no man's service but what is 
purely volunteer. So we entered into other discourse, and 
the colonel perceiving by my talk that I had seen Tilly's 
army, was mighty curious in his questions, and seeming very 
well satisfied with the account 1 gave him. 

The next day the army having passed the Elbe at "Wittem- 
berg, and joined the Saxon army near Torgau, his majesty 
caused both armies to draw up in battalia, giving every 
brigade the same post in the lines as he purposed to fight in. 
I must do the memory of that glorious general this honour, 
that I never saw an army drawn up with so much variety, 
order, and exact regularity since, though I have seen many 
armies drawn up by some of the greatest captains of the 
age. The order by which his men were directed to flank 
and relieve one another, the methods of receiving one body 
of men if disordered into another, and rallying one squadron 
without disordering another, was so admirable; the horse 
everywhere flanked, lined, and defended by the foot, and the 
foot by the horse, and both by the cannon, was such, that if 
those orders were but as punctually obeyed, it were im- 
possible to put an army so modelled into any confusion. 

The view being over, and the troops returned to their 
camps, the captain with whom we drank the day before 
meeting me, told me I must come and sup with him in his 
tent, where he would ask my pardon for the affront he gave 
me before. I told him he needed not put himself to the 
trouble ; I was not affronted at all, that I would do myself 
the honour to wait on him, provided he would give me his 
word not to speak any more of it as an affront. 

We had not been a quarter of an hour in his tent but Sir 
John Hepburn came in again, and addressing to me, told me 
he was glad to find me there ; that he came to the captain's 
tent to inquire how to send to me ; and that I must do him 
the honour to go with him to wait on the king, who had a 
mind to hear the account I could give him of the imperial 
army from my own mouth. I confess I was at some loss in 
my mind how to make my address to his majesty ; but I had 



44 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

heard so much of the conversable temper of the king, and his 
particular sweetness of humour with the meanest soldier, that 
I made no more difficulty, but having paid my respect to 
Colonel Hepburn, thanked him for the honour he had done 
me, and offered to rise and wait upon him. Nay, says the 
colonel, we will eat first, for I find Grourdon (which was the 
captain's name), has got something for supper, and the king's 
order is at seven o'clock. So we went to supper, and Sir 
John becoming very friendly, must know my name ; which, 
when I had told him, and of what place and family, he rose 
from his seat, and embracing me, told me he knew my father 
very well, and had been intimately acquainted with him ; 
and told me several passages wherein my father had particu- 
larly obliged him. After this we went to supper, and the 
king's health being drank round, the colonel moved the sooner 
because he had a mind to talk with me. When we were going 
to the king, he inquired of me where I had been, and what 
occasion brought me to the army. I told him the short his- 
tory of my travels, and that I came hither from Vienna on 
purpose to see the King of Sweden and his army ; he asked 
me if there was any service he could do me, by which he 
meant, whether I desired an employment. I pretended not 
to take him so, but told him the protection his acquaintance 
would afford me was more than I could have asked, since I 
might thereby have opportunity to satisfy my curiosity, which 
was the chief end of my coming abroad. He perceiving by 
this that I had no mind to be a soldier, told me very kindly 
I should command him in anything ; that his tent and equi- 
page, horses and servants, should always have orders to be 
at my service ; but that, as a piece of friendship, he would 
advise me to retire to some place distant from the army, for 
that the army would march to-morrow, and the king was 
resolved to fight General Tilly, and he would not have me 
hazard myself; that if I thought fit to take his advice, he 
would have me take that interval to see the court at Berlin, 
whither he would send one of his servants to wait on me. 
His discourse was too kind not to extort the tenderest 
acknowledgment from me that I was capable of; I told him 
his care of me was so obliging, that I knew not what return 
to make him, but if he pleased to leave me to my choice, I 
desired no greater favour than to trail a pike under his com- 
mand in the ensuing battle. I can never answer it to your 



INTRODUCED TO THE KING. 



45 






father, says he, to suffer you to expose yourself so far. I 
told him my father would certainly acknowledge his friend- 
ship in the proposal made me ; but I believed he knew 
him better than to think he would be well pleased with me 
if I should accept of it ; that I was sure my father would 
have rode post five hundred miles to have been at such a 
battle under such a general, and it should never be told him 
that his son had rode fifty miles to be out of it. He seemed 
to be something concerned at the resolution I had taken, and 
replied very quickly upon me, that he approved very well of 
my courage ; but, says he, no man gets any credit by run- 
ning upon needless adventures, nor loses any by shunning 
hazards which he has no order for. It is enough, says he, 
for a gentleman to behave well when he is commanded upon 
any service ; I have had fighting enough, says he, upon these 
points of honour, and I never got anything but reproof for it 
from the king himself. Well, sir, said I, however, if a man 
expects to rise by his valour, he must show it somewhere ; 
and if I were to have any command of an army,. I would 
first try whether I could deserve it ; I have never yet seen 
any service, and must have my induction some time or other. 
I shall never have a better schoolmaster than yourself, nor a 
better school than such an army. Well, says Sir John, but 
you may have the same school and the same teaching after 
this battle is over ; for I must tell you beforehand, this will 
be a bloody touch. Tilly has a great army of old lads that 
are used to boxing, fellows with iron faces, and it is a little 
too much to engage so hotly the first entrance into the wars. 
You may see our discipline this winter, and make your cam- 
paign with us next summer, when you need not fear but we 
shall have fighting enough, and you will be better acquainted 
with things. We do never put our common soldiers upon 
pitched battles the first campaign, but place our new men in 
garrisons, and try them in parties first. Sir, said I, with a 
little more freedom, I believe I shall not make a trade of the 
war, and therefore need not serve an apprenticeship to it. It 
is a hard battle where none escapes ; if I come off", I hope 
I shall not disgrace you, and if not, it will be some satisfac- 
tion to my father to hear his son died fighting under the com- 
mand of Sir John Hepburn, in the army of the King of 
Sweden, and I desire no better epitaph upon my tomb. 
Well, says Sir John ; and by this time we were just come to 



46 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

the king's quarters, and the guards calling to us interrupted 
his reply ; so we went into the court yard where the king 
was lodged, which was in an indifferent house of one of the 
burghers of Debien, and Sir John stepping up, met the king 
coming down some steps into a large room which looked over 
the town wall into a field where part of the artillery was 
drawn up. Sir John Hepburn sent his man presently to me 
to come up, which I did ; and Sir John, without any cere- 
mony, carries me directly up to the king, who was leaning 
on his elbow, in the window. The king turning about ; This 
is the English gentleman, says Sir John, who I told your 
majesty had been in the imperial army. How then did he 
get hither, says the king, without being taken by the scouts ? 
At which question Sir John said nothing. By a pass, and 
please your majesty, from the English ambassador's secretary 
at Vienna, said I, making a profound reverence. Have you 
then been at Vienna ? says the king. Yes, and please your 
majesty, said I; upon which the king folding up a letter he 
had in his hand, seemed much more earnest to talk about 
Vienna, than about Tilly. And pray what news had you at 
Vienna ? Nothing, sir, said I, but daily accounts, one in the 
neck of another, of their own misfortunes, and your majesty's 
conquests, which makes a very melancholy court there. But 
pray, said the king, what is the common opinion there about 
these affairs ? The common people are terrified to the last 
degree, said I; and when your majesty took Frankfort upon 
Oder, if your army had marched but twenty miles into 
Silesia, half the people would have run out of Vienna, and I 
left them fortifying the city. They need not, replied the 
king, smiling, I have no design to trouble them, it is the 
Protestant countries I must be for. Upon this the Duke of 
Saxony entered the room, and finding the king engaged, 
offered to retire ; but the king, beckoning with his hand, 
called to him in French. Cousin, says the king, this gentle- 
man has been travelling, and comes from Vienna, and so 
made me repeat what I had said before ; at which the king 
went on with me, and Sir John Hepburn informing his 
majesty that I spoke high Dutch, he changed his lan- 
guage, and asked me in Dutch where it was I saw General 
Tilly's army; I told his majesty at the siege of Magde- 
burgh. At Magdeburgh ! said the king, shaking his head ; 
Tilly must answer to me one day for that city, and, if 



47 

not to me, to a greater king than I. Can you guess what 
army he had with him? said the king. He had two 
armies with him, said I, but one I suppose will do your 
majesty no harm. Two armies ! said the king. Yes, sir, he 
has one army of about twenty-six thousand men, said I, and 
another of above fifteen thousand whores and their atten- 
dants ; at which the king laughed heartily. Ay, ay, says 
the king, those fifteen thousand do us as much harm as the 
twenty-six thousand ; for they eat up the country, and 
devour the poor protestants more than the men. Well, says 
the king, do they talk of fighting us ? They talk big enough, 
sir, said I, but your majesty has not been so often fought 
with, as beaten in their discourse. I know not for the men, 
says the king, but the old man is as likely to do it as talk of 
it, and I hope to try them in a day or two. The king 
inquired after that, several matters of me about the Low 
Countries, the prince of Orange, and of the court and affairs 
in England ; and Sir John Hepburn informing his majesty 
that I was the son of an English gentleman of his acquaint- 
ance, the king had the goodness to ask him what care he 
had taken of me against the day of battle. Upon which 
Sir John repeated to him the discourse we had together by 
the way ; the king, seeming particularly pleased with it, 
began to take me to task himself. You English gentlemen, 
says he, are too forward in the wars, which makes you leave 
them too soon again. Your majesty, replied I, makes war 
in so pleasant a manner, as makes all the world fond of 
fighting under your conduct. Not so pleasant neither, says 
the king ; here's a man can tell you that sometimes it is not 
very pleasant. I know not much of the warrior, sir, said I, 
nor of the world, but, if always to conquer be the pleasure 
of the war, your majesty's soldiers have all that can be 
desired. Well, says the king, but however, considering all 
things, I think you would do well to take the advice Sir 
John Hepburn has given you. Your majesty may command 
me to anything, but where your majesty and so many 
gallant gentlemen hazard their lives, mine is not worth 
mentioning ; and I should not dare to tell my father, at my 
return into England, that I was in your majesty's army, and 
made so mean a figure, that your majesty would not permit 
me to fight under that royal standard. Nay, replied the 
king, I lay no commands upon you, but you are young. I 



48 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

can never die, sir, said I, with more honour than in your 
majesty's service. I spake this with so much freedom, and 
his majesty was so pleased with it, that he asked me how I 
would choose to serve, t on horseback or on foot. I told his 
majesty I should be glad to receive any of his majesty's 
commands, but, if I had not that honour, I had purposed to 
trail a pike under Sir John Hepburn, who had done me so 
much honour as to introduce me into his majesty's presence. 
Do so, then, replied the king, and, turning to Sir John 
Hepburn, said, And pray do you take care of him ; at which, 
overcome with the goodness of his discourse, I could not 
answer a word, but made him a profound reverence, and 
retired. 

The next day but one, being the 7th of September, before 
day the army marched from Dieben to a large field about a 
mile from Leipsic, where we found Tilly's army in full 
battalia in admirable order, which made a show both 
glorious and terrible. Tilly, like a fair gamester, had taken 
up but one side of the plain, and left the other free, and all 
the avenues open for the king's army ; nor did he stir to the 
charge till the king's army was completely drawn up and 
advanced towards him. He had in his army forty-four 
thousand old soldiers, every way answerable to what I have 
said of them before ; and I shall only add, a better army, I 
believe, never was so soundly beaten. 

The king was not .much inferior in force, being joined 
with the Saxons, who were reckoned twenty-two thousand 
men, and who drew up on the left, making a main battle 
and two wings, as the king did on the right. 

The king placed himself at the right wing of his own 
horse: Gustavus Horn had the main battle of the Swedes, 
the Duke of Saxony had the main battle of his own troops, 
and General Arnheim the right wing of his horse. 

The second line of the Swedes consisted of the two 
Scotch brigades, and three Swedish, with the Finland horse 
in the wings. 

In the beginning of the fight, Tilly's right wing charged 
with such irresistible fury upon the left of the king's army, 
where the Saxons were posted, that nothing could withstand 
them ; the Saxons fled amain, and some of them carried the 
news over the country that all was lost, and the king's army 
overthrown; and indeed it passed for an oversight with 



BATTLE WITH TILLY* S ARMY. 49 

some, that the king did not place some of his old troops 
among the Saxons, who were new raised men. The Saxons 
lost here near two thousand men, and hardly ever showed 
their faces again all the battle, except some few of their 
horse. 

I was posted with my comrade, the captain, at the head of 
three Scottish regiments of foot, commanded by Sir John 
Hepburn, with express directions from the colonel to keep 
by him. Our post was in the second line, as a reserve to 
the king of Sweden's main battle, and, which was strange, 
the main battle, which consisted of four great brigades of 
foot, were never charged during the whole fight ; and yet 
we, who had the reserve, were obliged to endure the whole 
weight of the imperial army. The occasion was, the right 
wing of the imperialists having defeated the Saxons, and 
being eager in the chase, Tilly, who was an old soldier, and 
ready to prevent all mistakes, forbids any pursuit ; Let them 
go, says he, but let us beat the Swedes, or we do nothing. 
Upon this the victorious troops fell in upon the flank of the 
king's army, which, the Saxons being fled, lay open to them. 
Gustavus Horn commanded the left wing of the Swedes, 
and, having first defeated some regiments which charged 
him, falls in upon the rear of the imperial right wing, and 
separates them from the van, who were advanced a great 
way forward in pursuit of the Saxons ; and having routed 
the said rear or reserve, falls on upon Tilly's main battle, 
and defeated part of them: the other part was gone in chase 
of the Saxons, and now also returned, fell in upon the rear 
of the left wing of the Swedes, charging them in the flank ; 
for they drew up upon the very ground which the Saxons 
had quitted. This changed the whole front, and made the 
Swedes face about to the left, and make a great front on 
their flank to make this good. Our brigades, who were . 
placed as a reserve for the main battle, were, by special 
order from the king, wheeled about to the left, and placed 
for the right of this new front to charge the imperialists ; 
they were about twelve thousand of their best foot, besides 
horse, and, flushed with the execution of the Saxons, fell on 
like furies. The king by this time had almost defeated the 
imperialists' left wing; their horse, with more haste than 
good speed, had charged faster than their foot could follow, 
and, having broke into the king's first line, he let them go ; 

VOL. II. e 



50 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

where, while the second line bears the shock, and bravely 
resisted them, the king follows them on the crupper with 
thirteen troops of horse, and some musketeers, by which, 
being hemmed in, they were all cut down in a moment as it 
were, and the army never disordered with them. This fatal 
blow to the left wing gave the king more leisure to defeat 
the foot which followed, and to send some assistance to 
Gustavus Horn in his left wing, who had his hands full with 
the main battle of the imperialists. 

But those troops, who, as I said, had routed the Saxons, 
being called off from the pursuit, had charged our flank, and 
were now grown very strong, renewed the battle in a terrible 
manner. Here it was I saw our men go to wreck ; Colonel 
Hall, a brave soldier, commanded the rear of the Swedes left 
wing ; he fought like a lion, but was slain, and most of his 
regiment cut off, though not unrevenged ; for they entirely 
ruined Furstemberg's regiment of foot. Colonel Cullembach, 
with his regiment of horse, was extremely overlaid also, and 
the colonel and many brave officers killed, and in short all 
that wing was shattered and in an ill condition. 

In this juncture came the king, and having seen what ha- 
toc the enemy made of Cullembach's troops, he comes riding 
along the front of our three brigades, and himself led us on 
to the charge ; the colonel of his guards, the Baron Dyvel, 
was shot dead just as the king had given him some orders. 
When the Scots advanced, seconded by some regiments of 
horse, which the king also sent to the charge, the bloodiest 
fight began that ever men beheld ; for the Scottish brigades 
giving fire three ranks at a time over one another's heads, 
poured in their shot so thick, that the enemy were cut down 
like grass before a scythe ; and following into the thickest of 
their foot, with the clubs of their muskets made a most dread- 
ful slaughter, and yet was there no flying. Tilly's men might 
be killed and knocked down, but no man turned his back, 
nor would give an inch of ground, but as they were wheeled, 
or marched, or retreated by their officers. 

There was a regiment of cuirassiers, which stood whole to 
the last, and fought like lions ; they went ranging over the 
field when all their army was broken, and nobody cared for 
charging them ; they were commanded by Baron Cronen- 
burgh, and at last went off from the battle whole. These 
were armed in black armour from head to foot, and they car- 






tillt's army defeated. 51 

ried off their general. About six o'clock the field was cleared 
of the enemy, except at one place on the king's side, where 
some of them rallied, and, though they knew all was lost, 
would take no quarter, but fought it out to the last man, 
being found dead the next day in rank and file as they were 
drawn up. 

I had the good fortune to receive no hurt in this battle, 
excepting a small scratch on the side of my neck by the push 
of a pike ; but my friend received a very dangerous wound 
when the battle was as good as over. He had engaged with 
a German colonel, whose name we could never learn, and 
having killed his man, and pressed very close upon him, so 
that he had shot his horse, the horse in the fall kept the 
colonel down, lying on one of his legs, upon which he de- 
manded quarter, which Captain Fielding granted, helping him 
to quit his horse, and having disarmed him, was bringing 
him into line, when the regiment of cuirassiers, which I men- 
tioned, commanded by Baron Cronenburgh, came roving over 
the field, and with a flying charge saluted our front with a 
salvo of carabin-shot, which wounded us a great many men ; 
and among the rest the captain received a shot in his thigh, 
which laid him on the ground, and being separated from the 
line, his prisoner got away with them. 

This was the first service I was in, and indeed I never saw 
any fight since maintained with such gallantry, such despe- 
rate valour, together with such dexterity of management, both 
sides being composed of soldiers fully tried, bred to the wars, 
expert in everything, exact in their order, and incapable of 
fear, which made the battle be much more bloody than usual. 
Sir John Hepburn, at my request, took particular care of my 
comrade, and sent his own surgeon to look after him ; and 
afterwards, when the city of Leipsic was retaken, provided 
him lodgings there, and came very often to see him ; and in- 
deed I was in great care for him too, the surgeons being very 
doubtful of him a great while ; for, having lain in the field 
all night among the dead, his wound, for want of dressing, 
and with the extremity of cold, was in a very ill condition, 
and the pain of it had thrown him into a fever. 'Twas quite 
dusk before the fight ended, especially where the last rallied 
troops fought so long, and therefore we durst not break our 
order to seek out our friends, so that 'twas near seven o'clock 
the next morning before we found the captain, who, though very 

e 2 



52 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

weak by the loss of blood, had raised himself up, and placed 
his back against the buttock of a dead horse. I was the first 
that knew him, and running to him embraced him with a 
great deal of joy; he was not able to speak, but made signs 
to let me see he knew me, so we brought him into the camp, 
and Sir John Hepburn, as I noted before, sent his own sur- 
geons to look after him. 

The darkness of the night prevented any pursuit, and was 
the only refuge the enemy had left ; for had there been three 
hours' more daylight, ten thousand more lives had been lost, 
for the Swedes, and Saxons especially, enraged by the obsti- 
nacy of the enemy, were so thoroughly heated that they would 
have given quarter but to few. The retreat was not sounded 
'till seven o'clock, when the king drew up the whole army 
upon the field of battle, and gave strict command that none 
should stir from their order ; so the army lay under their arms 
all night, which was another reason why the woUnded soldiers 
suffered very much by the cold ; for the king, who had a bold 
enemy to deal with, was not ignorant what a small body of 
desperate men rallied together might have done in the dark- 
ness of the night, and therefore he lay in his couch all night 
at the head of the line, though it froze very hard. 

As soon as the day began to peep, the trumpets sounded 
to horse, and all the dragoons and light horse in the army 
were commanded to the pursuit. The cuirassiers and some 
commanded musketeers advanced some miles, if need were, 
to make good their retreat, and all the foot stood to their 
arms for a reserve ; but in half an hour word was brought to 
the king, that the enemy were quite dispersed, upon which 
detachments were made out of every regiment to search among 
the dead for any of our friends that were wounded ; and the 
king himself gave a strict order, that if any were found 
wounded and alive among the enemy, none should kill them, 
but take care to bring them into the camp : a piece of hu- 
manity which saved the lives of near a thousand of the enemies. 

This piece of service being over, the enemy's camp was 
seized upon, and the soldiers were permitted to plunder it ; all 
the cannon, arms, and ammunition were secured for the king's 
use, the rest was given up to the soldiers, who found so much 
plunder that they had no reason to quarrel for shares. 

For my share, I was so busy with my wounded captain, 
that I got nothing but a sword, which I found just by him 



CAMP GIVEN UP TO PLUNDER. 



53 



when I first saw him ; but my man brought me a very good 
horse, with a furniture on him, and one pistol of extraor- 
dinary workmanship. 

I bade him get upon his back and make the best of the 
day for himself, which he did, and I saw him no more till 
three days after, when he found me out at Leipsic, so richly 
dressed that I hardly knew him; and after making his 
excuse for his long absence, gave me a very pleasant account 
where he had been. He told me, that according to my 
order, being mounted on the horse he had brought me, he 
first rid into the field among the dead, to get some clothes 
suitable to the equipage of his horse, and having seized on a 
laced coat, a helmet, a sword, and an extraordinary good 
cane, was resolved to see what was become of the enemy, 
and following the track of the dragoons, which he could 
easily do by the bodies on the road, he fell in with a small party 
of twenty-five dragoons, under no command but a corporal, 
making to a village, where some of the enemy's horse had 
been quartered. The dragoons, taking him for an officer, 
by his horse, desired him to command them, told him the 
enemy was very rich, and they doubted not a good booty. 
He was a bold brisk fellow, and told them with all his heart ; 
but said he had but one pistol, the other being broke with 
firing ; so they lent him a pair of pistols, and a small piece 
they had taken, and he led them on. There had been a 
regiment of horse and some troops of Crabats in the village, 
but they were fled on the first notice of the pursuit, excepting 
three troops, and these, on sight of this small party, supposing 
them to be only the first of a greater number, fled in the 
greatest confusion imaginable. They took the village and 
about fifty horses, with all the plunder of the enemy ; and with 
the heat of the service he had spoiled my horse, he said, for 
which he had brought me two more ; for he, passing for the 
commander of the party, had all the advantage the custom of 
war gives an officer in like cases. 

I was very well pleased with the relation the fellow gave 
me, and laughing at him, Well, captain, said I, and what 
plunder have you got ? Enough to make me a captain, sir, 
says he, if you please, and a troop ready raised too ; for the 
party of dragoons are posted in the village by my command, 
till they have farther orders. In short, he pulled out sixty 
or seventy pieces of gold, five or six watches, thirteen or 



54 * MEMOIKS OF A CAVALIER. 

fourteen rings, whereof two were diamond rings, one of 
which was worth fifty dollars ; silver as much as his 
pockets would hold, besides that he had brought three horses, 
two of which were laden with baggage, and a boor he had 
hired to stay with them at Leipsic till he had found me out. 
But I am afraid, captain, says I, you have plundered the 
village, instead of plundering the enemy. No indeed, not 
we, says he, but the Crabats had done it for us, and we light 
of them just as they were carrying it off. Well, said I, but 
what will you do with your men ; for when you come to 
give them orders they will know you well enough ? No, no, 
says he, I took care of that; for just now I gave a soldier 
five dollars to carry them news that the army was marched 
to Moersburg, and that they should follow thither to the 
regiment. 

Having secured his money in my lodgings, he asked me 
if I pleased to see his horses, and to have one for myself? I 
told him I would go and see them in the afternoon ; but the 
fellow being impatient, goes and fetches them. There were 
three horses, one whereof was a very good one, and, by the 
furniture, was an officer's horse of the Crabats ; and that my 
man would have me accept, for the other he had spoiled, as he 
said. I was but indifferently horsed before, so I accepted of the 
horse, and went down with him to see the rest of his plunder 
there. He had got three or four pair of pistols, two or 
three bundles of officers' linen, and lace, a field bed and a 
tent, and several other things of value ; but at last, coming 
to a small fardel, And this, says he, I took whole from a 
Crabat running away with it under his arm ; so he brought 
it up into my chamber. He had not looked into it, he said, 
but he understood it was some plunder the soldiers had 
made, and, finding it heavy, took it by consent. We opened 
it, and found it was a bundle of some linen, thirteen or 
fourteen pieces of plate, and in a small cup, three rings, a 
fine necklace of pearl, and the value of one hundred rix- 
dollars in money. The fellow was amazed at his own good 
fortune, and hardly knew what to do with himself. I bid him 
go take care of his other things, and of his horses, and come 
again ; so he went and discharged the boor that waited, and 
packed up all his plunder, and came up to me in his old 
clothes again. How now, captain, says I, what, have you 
altered your equipage already? I am no more ashamed, 



VALUE OP MY SERVANT'S PLUNDER. 



55 



sir, of your livery, answered he, than of your service, and 
nevertheless your servant for what I have got by it. Well, 
says I to him, but what will you do now with all your money ? 
I wish my poor father had some of it, says he ; and for the 
rest, I got it for you, sir, and desire you would take it. 

He spoke it with so much honesty and freedom, that I 
could not but take it very kindly ; but however, I told him I 
would not take a farthing from him, as his master ; but I 
would have him play the good husband with it now he had 
such good fortune to get it. He told me he would take my 
directions in everything. Why then, said I, I'll tell you 
what I would advise you to do ; turn it all into ready money, 
and convey it by return home into England, and follow 
yourself the first opportunity, and with good management you 
may put yourself in a good posture of living with it. The 
fellow, with a sort of dejection in his looks, asked me, if he 
had disobliged me in anything ? Why ? says I. That I was 
willing to turn him out of his service. No, George (that 
was his name), says I, but you may live on this money 
without being a servant. I'd throw it all into the Elbe, says 
he, over Torgau bridge, rather than leave your service; 
and besides, says he, can't I save my money without going 
from you ? I got it in your service, and I'll never spend it out' 
of your service, unless you put me away. I hope my money 
won't make me the worse servant ; if I thought it would I'd 
soon have little enough. Nay, George, says I, I shall not 
oblige you to it for I am not willing to lose you neither. 
Come then, says I, let us put it all together, and see what 
it will come to.- So he laid it all together on the table ; and 
by our computation he had gotten as much plunder as was 
worth about one thousand four hundred rix-dollars, besides 
three horses with their furniture, a tent, a bed, and some 
wearing linen. Then he takes the necklace of pearl, a very 
good watch, a diamond ring, and a hundred pieces of gold, 
and lays them by themselves ; and having, according to our 
best calculation, valued the things, he put up all the rest ; 
and as I was going to ask him what they were left out for, 
he takes them up in his hand, and coming round the table, told 
me, that if I did not think him unworthy of my service and 
favour, he begged I would give him leave to make that 
present to me ; that it was my first thought, his going out ; 
that he had got it all in my service, and he should think I 



56 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

had no kindness for him if I should refuse it. I was resolved 
in my mind not to take it from him, and yet I could find no 
means to resist his importunity ; at last I told him, I would 
accept of part of his present, and that I esteemed his respect 
in that as much as the whole, and that I would not have 
him importune me farther ; so I took the ring and watch, 
with the horse and furniture as before, and made him turn 
all the rest into money at Leipsic ; and not suffering him to 
wear his livery, made him put himself into a tolerable 
equipage, and taking a young Leipsicer into my service, he 
attended me as a gentleman from that time forward. 

The king's army never entered Leipsic, but proceeded to 
Moersburg, and from thence to Halle, and so marched on 
into Franconia, while the Duke of Saxony employed his 
forces in recovering Leipsic, and driving the imperialists out 
of his country. I continued at Leipsic twelve days, being 
not willing to leave my comrade until he was recovered ; but 
Sir John Hepburn so often importuned me to come into the 
army, and sent me word that the king had very often in- 
quired for me, that at last I consented to go without him. 
So having made our appointment where to meet, and how to 
correspond by letters, I went to wait on Sir John Hepburn, 
who then lay with the king's army at the city of Erfurt in 
Saxony. As I was riding between Leipsic and Halle, I ob- 
served my horse went very awkwardly and uneasy, and sweat 
very much, though the weather was cold, and we had rid but 
very softly. I fancied, therefore, that the saddle might hurt 
the horse, and calls my new captain up : George, says I, I 
believe this saddle hurts the horse. So we alighted, and look- 
ing under the saddle found the back of the horse extremely 
galled ; so I bid him take off the saddle, which he did, and 
giving the horse to my young Leipsicer to lead, we sat down 
to see if we could mend it, for there was no town near us. 
Says George, pointing with his finger, If you please to cut 
open the pannel there, I'll get something to stuff into it, which 
will bear it from the horse's back ; so while he looked for 
something to thrust in, I cut a hole in the pannel of the sad- 
dle, and following it with my finger I felt something hard, 
which seemed to move up and down : again, as I thrust it 
with my finger, Here's something that should not be here, 
says I, not yet imagining what afterwards fell out, and calling, 
Run back, bade him put up his finger ; Whatever it is, says 



FIND MONEY IN MY HORSE'S SADDLE. 57 

he, it is this hurts the horse, for it bears just on his back 
when the saddle is set on. So we strove to take hold on it, 
but could not reach it ; at last we took the upper part of the 
saddle quite from the pannel, and there lay a small silk purse 
wrapt in a piece of leather, and full of gold ducats. Thou 
art born to be rich, George, says I to him, here's more 
money. We opened the purse, and found in it four hundred 
and thirty-eight small pieces of gold. There I had a new 
skirmish with him whose the money should be. I told him 
it was his ; he told me no, I had accepted of the horse and 
furniture, and all that was about him was mine, and solemnly 
vowed he would not have a penny of it. I saw no remedy 
but put up the money for the present, mended our saddle, and 
went on. We lay that night at Halle, and having had such 
a booty in the saddle, I made him search the saddles of the 
other two horses ; in one of which we found three French 
crowns, but nothing in the other. 



CHAPTER V. 

ARRIVAL AT ERFURT 1 RECEIVE A WOUND BEFORE THE 

CASTLE OF MARIENBURGH GRACIOUS RECEPTION OF THE 

KING BRAVERY OF A PRIVATE MUSKETEER BATTLE OF 

OPPENHEIM MARCH TO MENTZ LETTER FROM MY 

FATHER THE KING APPOINTS ME A COLONEL OF HORSE 

BATTLE OF LECH, AND DEFEAT OF TILLY. 

We arrived at Erfurt the 28th of September, but the army 
was removed, and entered into Franconia, and at the siege 
of Koningshoven we came up with them. The first thing I 
did, was to pay my civilities to Sir John Hepburn, who re- 
ceived me very kindly, but told me withal, that I had not 
done well to be so long from him ; and the king had particu- 
larly inquired for me, had commanded him to bring me to him 
at my return. I told him the reason of my stay at Leipsic, and 
how I had left that place, and my comrade, before he was 
cured of his wounds, to wait on him, according to his letters. 
He told me the king had spoken some things very obliging 
about me, and he believed would offer me some command in 
the army, if I thought well to accept of it. I told him I had 
promised my father not to take service in an army without 









58 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

his leave ; and yet if his majesty should offer it, I neither 
knew how to resist it, nor had I an inclination to anything 
more than the service, and such a leader ; though I had 
much rather have served as a volunteer at my own charge 
(which, as he knew, was the custom of our English gentle- 
men), than in any command. He replied, Do as you think 
fit ; but some gentlemen would give twenty thousand crowns 
to stand so fair for advancement as you do. 

The town of Koningshoven capitulated that day, and Sir 
John was ordered to treat with the citizens, so I had no 
farther discourse with him then ; and the town being taken, 
the army immediately advanced down the river Main, for the 
king had his eye upon Frankfort and Mentz, two great cities, 
both which he soon became master of, chiefly by the pro- 
digious expedition of his march ; for within a month after 
the battle, he was in the lower parts of the empire, and had 
passed from the Elbe to the Rhine, an incredible conquest ; 
had taken all the strong cities, the bishoprics of Bamberg, of 
Wurtzburg, and almost all the circle of Franconia, with part 
of Schawberland ; a conquest large enough to be seven years 
a making by the common course of arms. 

Business going on thus, the king had not leisure to think 
of small matters, and I being not thoroughly resolved in my 
mind, did not press Sir John to introduce me. I had wrote 
to my father, with an account of my reception in the army, 
the civilities of Sir John Hepburn, the particulars of the 
battle, and had indeed pressed him to give me leave to serve 
the King of Sweden; to which particular I waited for an 
answer, but the following occasion determined me before an 
answer could possibly reach me. 

The king was before the strong castle of Marienburg, 
which commands the city of Wurtzburg ; he had taken the 
city, but the garrison and richer part of the burghers were 
retired into the castle, and trusting to the strength of the 
place, which was thought impregnable, they bade the Swedes 
do their worst ; it was well provided with all things, and a 
strong garrison in it ; so that the army indeed expected it 
c would be a long piece of work. The castle stood on a high 
w rock, and on the steep of the rock was a bastion, which de- 
T fended the only passage up the hill into the castle ; the Scots 
were chose out to make this attack, and the king was an eye- 
witness of their gallantry. In this action Sir John was not 



WOUNDED BEFORE CASTLE OF MARIENBURG. 59 

commanded out, but Sir James Kamsey led them on ; but I 
observed that most of the Scotch officers in the other regi- 
ments prepared to serve as volunteers for the honour of their 
countrymen, and Sir John Hepburn led them on. I was re- 
solved to see this piece of service, and therefore joined myself 
to the volunteers ; we were armed with partisans, and each man 
two pistols at our belt. It was a piece of service that seemed 
perfectly desperate ; the advantage of the hill, the precipice 
we were to mount, the height of the bastion, the resolute 
courage and number of the garrison, who from a complete 
covert made a terrible fire upon us, all joined to make the 
action hopeless. But the fury of the Scots musketeers was 
not to be abated by any difficulties ; they mounted the hill, 
scaled the works like madmen, running upon the enemy's 
pikes ; and after two hours' desperate fight, in the midst of 
fire and smoke, took it by storm, and put all the garrison to 
the sword. The volunteers did their part, and had their 
share of the loss too, for thirteen or fourreen were killed out 
of thirty-seven, besides the wounded, among whom I received 
a hurt more troublsome than dangerous, by a thrust of a 
halberd into my arm, which proved a very painful wound, 
and I was a great while before it was thoroughly recovered. 

The king received us as we drew off at the foot of the hill, 
calling the soldiers his brave Scots, and commending the 
officers by name. The next morning the castle was also 
taken by storm, and the greatest booty that ever was found 
in any one conquest in the whole war ; the soldiers got here 
so much money that they knew not what to do with it, and 
the plunder they got here and at the battle of Leipsic, made 
them so unruly, that had not the king been the best master 
of discipline in the world, they had never been kept in any 
reasonable bounds. 

The king had taken notice of our small party of volunteers, 
and though I thought he had not seen me, yet he sent the 
next morning for Sir John Hepburn, and asked him if I were 
not come to the army. Yes, says Sir John, he has been here 
two or three days ; and as he was forming an excuse for not 
having brought me to wait on his majesty, says the king, in- 
terrupting him, I wonder you would let him thrust himself 
into such a hot piece of service as storming the Port Graft ; 
pray let him know I saw him, and have a very good account 
of his behaviour. Sir John returned with this account to me, 



60 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

and pressed me to pay my duty to his majesty the next 
morning ; and accordingly, though I had but an ill night 
with the pain of my wound, I was with him at the levee in 
the castle. 

I cannot but give some short account of the glory of the 
morning ; the castle had been cleared of the dead bodies of 
the enemies, and what was not pillaged by the soldiers, was 
placed under a guard. There was first a magazine of very 
good arms for about eighteen or twenty thousand foot, and 
four thousand horse, a very good train of artillery, of about 
eighteen pieces of battery, thirty-two brass field pieces, and 
four mortars. The bishop's treasure, and other public monies 
not plundered by the soldiers, was telling out by the officers, 
and amounted to four hundred thousand florins in money ; 
and the burghers of the town, in solemn procession, bare- 
headed, brought the king three ton of gold, as a composition 
to exempt the city from plunder. Here was also a stable of 
gallant horses, which the king had the curiosity to go and see. 

When the ceremony of the burghers was over, the king 
came down into the castle court, walked on the parade, where 
the great train of artillery was placed on their carriages, and 
round the walls, and gave order for repairing the bastion that 
was stormed by the Scots ; and as, at the entrance of the 
parade, Sir John Hepburn and I made our reverence to the 
king, Ho, Cavalier, said the king to me, I am glad to see you, 
and so passed forward ; I made my bow very low, but his 
majesty said no more at that time. 

When the view was over, the king went up into the lodg- 
ings, and Sir John and I walked in an antichamber for about 
a quarter of an hour, when one of the gentlemen of the bed- 
chamber came out to Sir John, and told him the king asked 
for him ; he stayed but a little with the king, and came out 
to me, and told me the king had ordered him to bring me to 
him. 

His majesty, with a countenance full of honour and good- 
ness, interrupted my compliment, and asked me how I did ; 
at which, answering only with a bow, says the king, I am 
sorry to see you are hurt, I would have laid my commands 
on you not to have shown yourself in so sharp a piece of ser- 
vice, if I had known you had been in the camp. Your 
majesty does me too much honour, said I, in your care of a 
life that has yet done nothing to deserve your favour. His 



his majesty's genekosity to me. 61 

majesty was pleased to say something very kind to me, relat- 
ing to my behaviour in the battle of Leipsic, which I have 
not vanity enough to write ; at the conclusion whereof, when 
I replied very humbly, that I was not sensible that any service 
I had done, or could do, could possibly merit so much good- 
ness, he told me he had ordered me a small testimony of his 
esteem, and withal gave me his hand to kiss. I was now 
conquered, and, with a sort of surprise, told his majesty I 
found myself so much engaged by his goodness, as well as my 
own inclination, that if his majesty would please to accept ot 
my devoir, I was resolved to serve in his army, or wherever 
he pleased to command me. Serve me ! says the king, why 
so you do ; but I must not have you be a musketeer, a poor 
soldier at a dollar a week will do that. Pray Sir John, says 
the king, give him what commission he desires. No commis- 
sion, sir, says I, would please me better than leave to fight 
near your majesty's person, and to serve you at my own 
charge, till I am qualified by more experience to receive your 
commands. Why then it shall be so, said the king, and I 
charge you, Hepburn, says he, when anything offers that is 
either fit for him, or he desires, that you tell me of it ; and 
giving me his hand again to kiss, I withdrew. 

I was followed, before I had passed the castle gate, by one 
of the king's pages, who brought me a warrant, directed to 
Sir John Hepburn, to go to the master of the horse, for an 
immediate delivery of things ordered by the king himself for 
my account ; where being come, the querry produced me a 
very good coach with four horses, harness and equipage, and 
two very fine saddle-horses, out of the stable of the bishop's 
horses afore-mentioned ; with these there was a list for three 
servants, and a warrant, to the steward of the king's baggage 
to defray me, my horses and servants, at the king's charge, 
till further order. I was very much at a loss how to manage 
myself in this so strange freedom of so great a prince ; and 
consulting with Sir John Hepburn, I was proposing to him 
whether it was not proper to go immediately back to pay 
my duty to his majesty, and acknowledge his bounty in the 
best terms I could ; but while we were resolving to do so, 
the guards stood to their arms, and we saw the king go out 
at the gate in his coach to pass into the city, so we were 
diverted from it for that time. I acknowledge the bounty of 
the king was very surprising, but I must say it was not so 



62 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

very strange to me when I afterwards saw the course of his 
management. Bounty in him was his natural talent, but he 
never distributed his favours but where he thought himself 
both loved and faithfully served ; and when he was so, even 
the single actions of his private soldiers he would take parti- 
cular notice of himself, and publicly own, acknowledge, and 
reward them, of which I am obliged to give some instances. 

A private musketeer, at the storming the castle of Wurtz- 
burg, when all the detachment was beaten off, stood in the 
face of the enemy, and fired his piece ; and, though he had a 
thousand shot made at him, stood unconcerned, and charged 
his piece again, and let fly at the enemy, continuing to do so 
three times ; at the same time, beckoning with his hand to 
his fellows to come on again, which they did, animated by his 
example, and carried the place for the king. 

When the town was taken, the king ordered the regiment 
to be drawn out, and calling for that soldier, thanked him 
before them all for taking the town for him, gave him a 
thousand dollars in money, and a commission with his own 
hand for a foot company, or leave to go home, which he would ; 
the soldier took the commission on his knees, kissed it, and 
put it into his bosom, and told the king he would never leave 
his service as long as he lived. 

This bounty of the king's, timed and suited by his judg- 
ment, was the reason that he was very well served, entirely 
beloved, and most punctually obeyed by his soldiers, who 
were sure to be cherished and encouraged, if they did well, 
having the king generally an eyewitness of their behaviour. 

My indiscretion rather than valour had engaged me so far 
at the battle of Leipsic, that being in the van of Sir John 
Hepburn's brigade, almost three whole companies of us were 
separated from our line, and surrounded by the enemies' pikes. 
I cannot but say also, that we were disengaged, rather by a 
desperate charge Sir John made with the whole regiment to 
fetch us off, than by our own valour, though we were not 
wanting to ourselves neither ; but this part of the action being 
talked of very much to the advantage of the young English 
volunteer, and possibly more than I deserved, was the occasion 
of all the distinction the king used me with ever after. 

I had by this time letters from my father, in which, though 
with reluctance, he left me at liberty to enter into arms if I 
thought fit, always obliging me to be directed, and, as he said, 



COMMAND A PARTY AT FORT OPPENHEIM. 63 

commanded by Sir John Hepburn. At the same time he 
wrote to Sir John Hepburn, commending his son's fortunes, as 
he called it, to his care ; which letters Sir John showed the 
king, unknown to me. 

I took care always to acquaint my father of every circum- 
stance, and forgot not to mention his majesty's extraordinary 
favour, which so affected my father, that he obtained a very 
honourable mention of it in a letter from King Charles to the 
King of Sweden, written by his own hand. 

I had waited on his majesty with Sir John Hepburn, to give 
him thanks for his magnificent present, and was received with 
his usual goodness, and after that I was every day among the 
gentlemen of his ordinary attendance ; and if his majesty went 
out on a party, as he would often do, or to view the country, 
I always attended him among the volunteers, of whom a great 
many always followed him ; and he would often call me out. 
talk with me, send me upon messages to towns, to princes, free 
cities, and the like, upon extraordinary occasions. 

The first piece of service he put me upon had like to have 
embroiled me with one of his favourite colonels. The king 
was marching through the Bergstraet, a low country on the 
edge of the Rhine, and, as all men thought, was going to 
besiege Heidelberg, but, on a sudden, orders a party of his 
guards, with five companies of Scots, to be drawn out ; while 
they were drawing out this detachment, the king calls me to 
him, Ho ! c Mvalier, says he, that was his usual word, you 
shall command this party ; and thereupon gives ma orders to 
march back all night, and in the morning, by break of day to 
take post under the walls of the fort of Oppenheim, and 
immediately to intrench myself as well as I could. Grave 
Neels, the. colonel of his guards, thought himself injured by 
this command, but the king took the matter upon himself; 
and Grave Neels told me very familiarly afterwards, We have 
such a master, says he, that no man can be affronted by. I 
thought myself wronged, says he, when you commanded my 
men over my head ; and for my life, says he, I knew not 
which way to be angry. 

I executed my commission so punctually, that by break of 
day I was set down within musket shot of the fort, under 
covert of a little mount, on which stood a windmill, and had 
indifferently fortified myself, and at the same time had posted 
some of my men on two other passes but at farther distance 



64 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

from the fort, so that the fort was effectually blocked up on 
the land side. In the afternoon the enemy sallied on my first 
intrenchment, but being covered from their cannon, and de- 
fended by a ditch which I had drawn across the road, they 
were so well received by my musketeers, that they retired 
with the loss of six or seven men. 

The next day, Sir John Hepburn was sent with two brigades 
of foot to carry on the work, and so my commission ended. 
The king expressed himself very well pleased with what I 
had done ; and when he was so, was never sparing of telling 
of it, for he used to say, that public commendations were a 
great encouragement to valour. 

While Sir John Hepburn lay before the fort, and was pre- 
paring to storm it, the king's design was to get over the Rhine, 
but the Spaniards which were in Oppenheim had sunk all the 
boats they could find ; at last the king, being informed where 
some lay that were sunk, caused them to be weighed with all 
the expedition possible, and in the night of the seventh of 
December, in three boats passed over his regiment of guards, 
about three miles above the town, and as the king thought 
secure from danger. But they were no sooner landed, and not 
drawn into order, but they were charged by a body of Spanish 
horse, and had not the darkness given them opportunity to 
draw up in the inclosures in several little parties, they had 
been in great danger of being disordered ; but by this means 
they lined the hedges and lanes so with musketeers, that the 
remainder had time to draw up in battalia, and saluted the 
horse with their muskets, so that they drew farther off. 

The king was very impatient, hearing his men engaged, 
having no boats nor possible means to get over to help* them. 
At last, about eleven o'clock at night, the boats came back, 
and the king thrust another regiment into them, and, though 
his officers dissuaded him, would go over himself with 
them on foot, and did so. This was three months that very 
day when the battle of Leipsic was fought, and winter-time 
too, that the progress of his arms had spread from the Elbe, 
where it parts Saxony and Brandenburgh, to the lower 
Palatinate and the Rhine. 

I went over in the boat with the king. I never saw him 
in so much concern in my life, for he was in pain for his men ; 
but before we got on shore the Spaniards retired. However 
the king landed, ordered his men, and prepared to intrench, 



SCALE THE PORT AND TAKE POSSESSION. $5 

but he had not time ; for by that time the boats were put oft 
again, the Spaniards, not knowing more troops were landed, 
and being reinforced from Oppenheim came on again, and 
charged with great fury ; but all things were now in order ; 
and they were readily received and beaten back again : they 
came on again the third time, and with repeated charges 
attacked us, but at last finding us too strong for them, they 
gave it over. By this time another regiment of foot was 
come over, and as soon as day appeared, the king, with the 
three regiments, marched to the town, which surrendered at 
the first summons, and the next day the fort yielded to Sir 
John Hepburn. 

The castle of Oppenheim held out still with a garrison of 
eight hundred Spaniards, and the king, leaving two hundred 
Scots of Sir James Ramsey's men in the town, drew out to 
attack the castle. Sir James Ramsey being left wounded at 
Wurtzburg, the king gave me the command of those two 
hundred men, which were a regiment, that is to say, all that 
were left of a gallant regiment of two thousand Scots, which 
the king brought out of Sweden with him, under that brave 
colonel; there was about thirty officers, who, having no 
soldiers, were yet in pay, and served as reformadoes with the 
regiment, and were over and above the two hundred men. 

The king designed to storm the castle on the lower side by 
the way that leads to Mentz, and Sir John Hepburn landed 
from the other side, and marched up to storm on the Rhine 
port. 

My reformado Scots, having observed that the town port 
of the castle was not so well guarded as the rest, all the eyes 
of the garrison being bent towards the king and Sir John 
Hepburn, came, running to me, and told me they believed 
they could enter the castle sword in hand, if I would give 
them leave. I told them I durst not give them orders, my 
commission being only to keep and defend the town ; but 
they being very importunate, I told them they were volun- 
teers, and might do what they pleased ; that I would lend 
them fifty men, and draw up the rest to second them, or 
bring them off, as I saw occasion, so as I might not hazard 
the town. This was as much as they desired ; they sallied 
immediately, and in a trice the volunteers scaled the port, 
cut in pieces the guard, and bnrst open the. gate, at which 
the fifty entered; finding the gate won, I advanced im- 

VOL. II. F 



66 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

mediately with a hundred musketeers more, having locked 
up all the gates of the town but the castle port, and leaving 
fifty still for a reserve just at that gate ; the townsmen too, 
seeing the castle as it were taken, run to arms, and followed 
me with above two hundred men. The Spaniards were 
knocked down by the Scots before they knew what the 
matter was, and the king and Sir John Hepburn, advancing 
to storm, were surprised, when, instead of resistance, they 
saw the Spaniards throwing themselves over the walls to 
avoid the fury of the Scots. Few of the garrison got away, 
but were either killed or taken, and, having cleared the 
castle, I set open the port on the king's side, and sent his 
majesty word the castle was his own. The king came on, 
and entered on foot. I received him at the head of the 
Scots reformadoes, who all saluted him with their pikes. 
The king gave them his hat, and turning about, Brave Scots! 
brave Scots ! says he, smiling, you were too quick for me ; 
then beckoning to me, made me tell him how and in what 
manner we had managed the storm, which he was exceeding 
well pleased with, but especially at the caution I had used 
to bring them off if they had miscarried, and secure the 
town. 

From hence the army marched to Mentz, which in four 
days' time capitulated, with the fort and citadel, and the 
city paid his majesty three hundred thousand dollars to be 
exempted from the fury of the soldiers ; here the king 
himself drew the plan of those invincible fortifications, 
which, to this day, make it one of the strongest cities in 
Germany. 

Friburg, Koningstien, Niustat, Keiser-Lautern, and almost 
all the Lower Palatinate, surrendered at the very terror of 
the king of Sweden's approach, and never suffered the 
danger of a siege. 

The king held a most magnificent court at Mentz, attended 
by the landgrave of Hesse, with an incredible number of 
princes and lords of the empire, with ambassadors and 
residents of foreign princes ; and here his majesty stayed 
till March, when the queen, with a great retinue of Swedish 
nobility, came from Erfurt to see him. The king, attended 
by a gallant train of German nobility, went to Frankfort, 
and from thence on to Hoest, to meet the queen, where her 
majesty arrived February 8th. 



ARRIVAL OF THE KING OF BOHEMIA. 67 

During the king's stay in these parts, his armies were not 
idle ; his troops, on one side, under the Rhinegrave, a brave 
and ever-fortunate commander, and under the landgrave of 
Hesse, on the other, ranged the country from Lorrain to 
Luxemburg, and past the Moselle on the west, and the 
Weser on the north. Nothing could stand before them ; the 
Spanish army, which came to the relief of the catholic 
electors, was everywhere defeated, and beaten quite out of 
the country, and the Lorrain army quite ruined; 'twas a 
most pleasant court sure as ever was seen, where every day 
expresses arrived of armies defeated, towns surrendered, 
contributions agreed upon, parties routed, prisoners taken, 
and princes sending ambassadors to sue for truces and 
neutralities, to make submissions and compositions, and to 
pay arrears and contributions. 

Here arrived, February 10th, the king of Bohemia from 
England, and with him my Lord Craven, with a body of 
Dutch horse, and a very fine train of English volunteers, 
who immediately, without any stay, marched on to Hoest to 
wait upon his majesty of Sweden, who received him with a 
great deal of civility, and was treated at a noble collation, 
by the king and queen, at Frankfort. Never had the 
unfortunate king so fair a prospect of being restored to his 
inheritance of the Palatinate as at that time ; and had King 
James, his father-in-law, had a soul answerable to the 
occasion, it had been effected before ; but it was a strange 
thing to see him equipped from the English court, with one 
lord and about forty or fifty English gentlemen in his 
attendance ; whereas, had the king of England now, as it is 
well known he might have done, furnished him with ten 
thousand or twelve thousand English foot, nothing could 
have hindered him taking a full possession of his country ; 
and yet even without that help did the king of Sweden clear 
almost his whole country of imperialists, and after his death 
reinstall his son in the electorate, but no thanks to us. 

The Lord Craven did me the honour to inquire for me by 
name, and his majesty of Sweden did me yet more, by 
presenting me to the king of Bohemia; and my Lord Craven 
gave me a letter from my father, and speaking something of 
my father having served under the Prince of Orange in the 
famous battle of Neuport, the king, smiling, returned, And 

f 2 






68 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

pray tell him from me his son has served as well in the 
warm battle of Leipsic. 

My father, being very much pleased with the honour I 
had received from so great a king, had ordered me to ac- 
quaint his majesty, that if he pleased to accept of their 
service he would raise him a regiment of English horse at 
his own charge, to be under my command, and to be sent 
over into Holland ; and my Lord Craven had orders irom 
the king of England, to signify his consent to the said levy. 
I acquainted my old friend Sir John Hepburn with the 
contents of the letter, in order to have his advice, who, 
being pleased with the proposal, would have me go to the 
king immediately with the letter, but present service put it 
off for some days. 

The taking of Creutznach was the next service of any 
moment ; the king drew out in person to the siege of this 
town ; the town soon came to parley, but the castle seemed 
a work of difficulty ; for its situation was so strong and so 
surrounded with works behind and above one another, that 
most people thought the king would receive a check from it ; 
but it was not easy to resist the resolution of the king of 
Sweden. 

He never battered it but with two small pieces, but having 
viewed the works himself, ordered a mine under the first ra- 
velin, which being sprung with success, he commands a storm ; 
I think there was not more commanded men than volunteers, 
both English, Scots, French, and Germans : my old comrade 
was by this time recovered of his wound at Leipsic, and made 
one. The first body of volunteers of about forty, were led on 
by my lord Craven, and I led the second, among whom were 
most of the reformado Scots officers who took the castle of 
Oppenheim. The first party was not able to make anything 
of it ; the garrison fought with so much fury that many of the 
volunteer gentlemen being wounded, and some killed, the rest 
were beaten off with loss. The king was in some passion at 
his men, and rated them for running away, as he called it, 
though they really retreated in good order, and commanded 
the assault to be renewed. It was our turn to fall on next ; 
our Scots officers, not being used to be beaten, advanced im- 
mediately, and my Lord Craven, with his volunteers, pierced 
in with us, fighting gallantly in the breach with a pike in his 



CONTEXTS OF MY FATHER'S LETTER. 69 

hand, and, to give him the honour due to his bravery, he was 
with the first on the top of the rampart, and gave his hand 
to my comrade, and lifted him up after him ; we helped one 
another up, till at last almost all the volunteers had gained 
the height of the ravelin, and maintained it with a great deal 
of resolution, expecting when the commanded men had gained 
the same height to advance upon the enemy, when one of the 
enemy's captains called to my Lord Craven, and told him, if 
they might have honourable terms they would capitulate ; 
which my lord telling him he would engage for, the garrison 
fired no more, and the captain leaping down from the next 
rampart, came with my Lord Craven into the camp, where 
the conditions were agreed on, and the castle surrendered. 

After the taking of this town, the king hearing of Tilly's 
approach, and how he had beaten Gustavus Horn, the king's 
fieldmarshal, out of Bamberg, began to draw his forces to- 
gether, and leaving the care of his conquests in these parts 
to his Chancellor Oxenstein, prepares to advance towards 
Bavaria. 

I had taken an opportunity to wait upon his majesty with 
Sir John Hepburn, and being about to introduce the discourse 
of my lather's letter, the king told me he had received a com- 
pliment on my account in a letter from King Charles. I told 
him his majesty had by his exceeding generosity bound me 
and all my friends to pay their acknowledgments to him, and 
that I supposed my father had obtained such a mention of it 
from the king of England, as gratitude moved him to ; that 
his majesty's favour had been shown in me to a family both 
willing and ready to serve him ; that I had received some 
commands from my father, which, if his majesty pleased to 
do me the honour to accept of, might put me in a condition 
to acknowledge his majesty's goodness, in a manner more 
proportioned to the sense I had of his favour ; and with that 
I produced my father's letter, and read that clause in it which 
related to the regiment of horse, which was as follows : 

" I read with a great deal of satisfaction the account you 
give of the great and extraordinary conquests of the King 
of Sweden, and with more his majesty's singular favour to 
you. I hope you will be careful to value and deserve so much 
honour. I am glad you rather chose to serve as a volunteer 
at your own charge, than to take any command, which, for 
want of experience, you might misbehave in. 



70 MEMOIRS O*' A CAVALIER. 

"I have obtained of the king that he will particularly thank 
his majesty of Sweden for the honour he has done you ; and 
if his majesty gives you so much freedom, I could be glad you 
should in the humblest manner thank his majesty in the name 
of an old broken soldier. 

" If you think yourself officer enough to command them, 
and his majesty pleased to accept them, I would have you 
offer to raise his majesty a regiment of horse, which I think 
I may near complete in our neighbourhcod with some of your 
old acquaintance, who are very willing to see the world. If 
his majesty gives you the word, they shall receive his com- 
mand in the Maes, the king having promised me to give them 
arms, and transport them for that service into Holland ; and 
I hope they may do his majesty such service as may be for 
your honour, and the advantage of his majesty's interest and 
glory. 

" Your loving father." 

It is an offer like a gentleman and like a soldier, says the 
king, and I'll accept of it on two conditions ; first, says the 
king, that I will pay your father the advance money for the 
raising the regiment; and next, that they shall be landed in 
the Weser or the Elbe, for which, if the King of England will 
not, I will pay the passage ; for if they land in Holland, it 
may prove very difficult to get them to us when the army 
shall be marched out of this part of the country. 

I returned this answer to my father, and sent my man 
George into England to order that regiment, and made him 
quarter-master. I sent blank commissions for the officers, 
signed by the king, to be filled up as my father should think 
fit ; and when I had the king's order for the commissions, 
the secretary told me I must go back to the king with them. 
Accordingly I went back to the king, who, opening the packet, 
laid all the commissions but one upon a table before him, and 
bade me take them, and, keeping that one still in his hand, 
Now, says he, you are one of my soldiers; and therewith gave 
me his commission, as colonel of horse in present pay. I took 
the commission, kneeling, and humbly thanked his majesty. 
But, says the king, there is one article of war I expect of you 
more than of others. Your majesty can expect nothing of 
me which I shall not willingly comply with, said I, as soon 
as I have the honour to understand what it is. Why, it is, 



COMMISSIONED AS COLONEL OF HORSE. 71 

says the king, that you shall never fight but when you have 
orders ; for I shall not be willing to lose my colonel before I 
have the regiment. I shall be ready at all times, sir, returned 
I, to obey your majesty's orders. 

I sent my man express with the king's answer, and the 
commission to my father, who had the regiment completed in 
less than two months' time, and six of the officers, with a list 
of the rest, came away to me, whom I presented to his ma- 
jesty when he lay before Nuremburg, where they kissed his 
hand. 

One of the captains offered to bring the whole regiment 
travelling as private men into the army in six weeks' time, 
and either to transport their equipage, or buy it in Germany ; 
but it was thought impracticable. However, I had so many 
came in that manner that I had a complete troop always 
about me, and obtained the king's order to muster them as a 
troop. 

On the 8th of March the king decamped, and marching up 
the river Maine, bent his course directly for Bavaria, taking 
several small places by the way, and, expecting to engage 
with Tilly, who, he thought, would dispute his entrance into 
Bavaria, kept his army together; but Tilly, finding himself 
too weak to encounter him, turned away, and leaving Bavaria 
open to the king, marched into the Upper Palatinate. The 
king finding the country clear of the imperialists, comes to 
Nuremberg, made his entrance into that city the 21st of 
March, and being nobly treated by the citizens, he continued 
his march into Bavaria, and on the 26th sat down before 
Donawert. The town was taken the next day by storm, so 
swift were the conquests of this invincible captain. Sir John 
Hepburn, with the Scots and the English volunteers at the 
head of them, entered the town first, and cut all the garrison 
to pieces, except such as escaped over the bridge. 

I had no share in the business of Donawert being now 
among the horse, but I was posted on the roads with five 
troops of horse, where we picked up a great many stragglers 
of the garrison, whom we made prisoners of war. 

It is observable, that this town of Donawert is a very 
strong place, and well fortified, and yet such expedition N did 
the king make, and such resolution did he use in his first 
attacks, that he carried the town without putting himself to 



72 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

the trouble of formal approaches. It was generally his way, 
when he came before any town with a design to besiege it, he 
never would encamp at a distance, and begin his trenches a 
great way off', but bring his men immediately within half 
musket-shot of the place ; there, getting under the best 
covert he could, he would immediately begin his batteries and 
trenches before their faces ; and if there was any place possi- 
ble to be attacked, he would fall to storming immediately. 
By this resolute way of coming on, he carried many a town 
in the first heat of his men, which would have held out many 
days against a more regular siege. 

This march of the king broke all Tilly's measures, for now 
he was obliged to face about, and leaving the Upper Palati- 
nate, to come to the assistance of the Duke of Bavaria ; for 
the king being twenty thousand strong, besides ten thousand 
loot and four thousand horse and dragoons which joined him 
from the Duringer Wald, was resolved to ruin the duke, who 
lay now open to him, and was the most powerful and invete- 
rate enemy of the protestants in the empire. 

Tilly was now joined with the Duke of Bavaria, and might 
together make about twenty- two thousand men ; and in order 
to keep the Swedes out of the country of Bavaria, had 
planted themselves along the banks of the river Lech, which 
runs on the edge of the duke's territories; and having forti- 
fied the other side of the river, and planted his cannon for 
several miles, at all the convenient places on the river, 
resolved to dispute the king's passage. 

I shall be the longer in relating this account of the Lech, 
being esteemed in those days as great an action as any battle 
or siege of that age, and particularly famous for the disaster 
of the gallant old general Tilly ; and for that I can be more 
particular in it than other accounts, having been an eye- 
witness to every part of it. 

The king being truly informed of the disposition of the 
Bavarian army, was once of the mind to have left the banks 
of the Lech, have repassed the Danube, and so setting down 
before Ingolstat, the duke's capital city, by the taking that 
strong town, to have made his entrance into Bavaria, and the 
conquest of such a fortress, one entire action; but the 
strength of the place, and the difficulty of maintaining his 
army in an enemy's country, while Tilly was so strong in the 



PREPARE TO ENGAGE WITH TILLY AT LECH. 73 

field, diverted him from that design ; he therefore concluded 
that Tilly was first to be beaten out of the country, and then 
the siege of Ingolstat would be easier. 

Whereupon the king resolved to go and view the situation 
of the enemy. His majesty went out the 2nd of April with 
a strong party of horse, which I had the honour to command ; 
we marched as near as we could to the banks of the river, 
not to be too much exposed to the enemy's cannon, and hav- 
ing gained a little height, where the whole course of the river 
might be seen, the king halted, and commanded to draw up. 
The king alighted, and calling me to him, examined every reach 
and turning of the river by his glass, but finding the river run 
a long and almost a straight course, he could find no place 
which he liked, but at last turning himself north, and looking 
down the stream, he found the river fetching a long reach, 
double short upon itself, making a round and very narrow 
point. There's a point will do our business, says the king, and, 
if the ground be good, I'll pass there, let Tilly do his worst. 

He immediately ordered a small party of horse to view the 
ground, and to bring him word particularly how high the 
bank was on each side and at the point ; and he shall have 
fifty dollars, says the king, that will bring me word how deep 
the water is. I asked his majesty leave to let me go, which 
he would by no means allow of; but as the party was draw- 
ing out, a Serjeant of dragoons told the king, if he pleased to 
let him go disguised as a boor, he would bring him an account 
of everything he desired. The king liked the motion well 
enough, and the fellow being very well acquainted with the 
country, puts on a ploughman's habit, and went away imme- 
diately with a long pole upon his shoulder ; the horse lay all 
this while in the woods, and the king stood undiscerned by 
the enemy on the little hill aforesaid. The dragoon with his 
long pole comes down boldly to the bank of the river, and 
calling to the centinels which Tilly had placed on the other 
bank, talked with them, asked them if they could not help 
him over the river, and pretended he wanted to come to 
them. At last being come to the point, where, as I said, the 
river makes a short turn, he stands parleying with them a 
great while, and sometimes pretending to wade over, he puts 
his long pole into the water, then finding it pretty shallow, he 
pulls off his hose and goes in, still thrusting his pole in before 
him, till being gotten up to his middle, he could reach beyond 



74 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

him, where it was too deep, and so shaking his head, comes 
back again. The soldiers on the other side laughing at him, 
asked him if he could swim ? He said no. Why you fool 
you, says one of the centinels, the channel of the river is 
twenty feet deep. How do you know that? says the dragoon. 
Why our engineer, says he, measured it yesterday. This 
was what he wanted, but not yet fully satisfied; Ay but, 
says he, may be it may not be very broad, and if one of you 
would wade in to meet me till I could reach you with my 
pole, I'd give him half a ducat to pull me over. The inno- 
cent way of his discourse so deluded the soldiers, that one of 
them immediately strips and goes in up to the shoulders, and 
our dragoon goes in on this side to meet him ; but the stream 
took the other soldier away, and he being a good swimmer, 
came swimming over to this side. The dragoon was then in 
a great deal of pain for fear of being discovered, and was once 
going to kill the fellow, and make off; but at last resolved to 
carry on the humour, and having entertained the fellow with 
a tale of a tub, about the Swedes stealing his oats, the fellow 
being cold, wanted to be gone, and as he was willing to be 
rid of him, pretended to be very sorry he could not get over 
the river, and so makes off. 

By this, however, he learned both the depth and breadth 
of the channel, the bottom and nature of both shores, and 
everything the king wanted to know. We could see him 
from the hill by our glasses very plain, and could see the 
soldier naked with him ; says the king, He will certainly be 
discovered and knocked on the head from the other side : he 
is a fool, says the king, if he does not kill the fellow and 
run off; but when the dragoon told his tale, the king was 
extremely well satisfied with him, gave him one hundred 
dollars, and made him a quarter-master to a troop of cuiras- 
siers. 

The king having farther examined the dragoon, he gave 
him a very distinct account of the shore and ground on this 
side, which he found to be higher than the enemy's by ten or 
twelve foot, and a hard gravel. 

Hereupon the king resolves to pass there, and in order to 
it, gives himself particular directions for such a bridge as I 
believe never army passed a river on before nor since. 

His bridge was only loose planks laid upon large trestles, 
in the same homely manner as I have seen bricklayers raise 



PLAN A BRIDGE ACROSS THE RIVER. 75 

a low scaffold to build a brick wall ; the trestles were made 
higher than one another to answer to the river, as it became 
deeper or shallower, and was all framed and fitted before any 
appearance was made of attempting to pass. 

When all was ready, the king brings his army down to the 
bank of the river, and plants his cannon as the enemy had 
done, some here and some there, to amuse them. 

At night, April 4th, the king commanded about two 
thousand men to march to the point, and to throw up a 
trench on either side, and quite round it, with a battery of 
six pieces of cannon, at each end, besides three small mounts, 
one at the point and one of each side, which had each of 
them two pieces upon them. This work was begun so 
briskly, and so well carried on, the king firing all the night 
from the other parts of the river, that by daylight all the 
batteries at the new work were mounted, the trench lined 
with two thousand musketeers, and all the utensils of the 
bridge lay ready to be put together. 

Now the imperialists discovered the design, but it was too 
late to hinder it. The musketeers in the great trench, and 
the five new batteries, made such continual fire, that the 
other bank which, as before, lay twelve feet below them, was 
too hot for the imperialists ; whereupon Tilly, to be provided 
for the king, at his coming over, falls to work in a wood right 
against the point, and raises a great battery for twenty pieces 
of cannon, with a breastwork, or line, as near the river as he 
could, to cover his men, thinking that when the king had 
built his bridge, he might easily beat it down with his 
cannon. 

But the king had doubly prevented him, first, by laying 
his bridge so low that none of Tilly's shot could hurt it ; for 
the bridge lay not above half a foot above the water's edge, 
by which means the king, who in that showed himself an 
excellent engineer, had secured it from any batteries to be 
made within the land, and the angle of the bank secured it 
from the remoter batteries on the other side, and the con- 
tinual fire of the cannon and small shot beat the imperalists 
from their station just against it, they having no works to 
cover them. 

And in the second place, to secure his passage, he sent 
over about two hundred men, and after that two hundred 
more, who had orders to cast up a large ravelin on the other 



76 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

bank, just where he designed to land his bridge; this wag 
done with such expedition too, that it was finished before 
night, and in condition to receive all the shot of Tilly's great 
battery, and effectually covered his bridge. While this was 
doing, the king on his side lays over his bridge. Both sides 
wrought hard all day and all night, as if the spade, not the 
sword, had been to decide the controversy, and that he had 
got the victory whose trenches and batteries were first ready. 
In the mean while the cannon and musket bullets flew like 
hail, and made the service so hot, that both sides had enough 
to do to make their men stand to their work ; the king in 
the hottest of it, animated his men by his presence, and Tilly, 
to give him his due, did the same ; for the execution was so 
great, and so many officers killed, General Attringer wounded, 
and two serjeant-majors killed, that at last Tilly himself was 
obliged to expose himself, and to come up to the very face 
of our line to encourage his men, and give his necessary 
orders. 

And here, about one o'clock, much about the time that the 
king's bridge and works were finished, and just as they said 
he had ordered to fall on upon our ravelin with three thou- 
sand foot, was the brave old Tilly slain with a musket bullet 
in the thigh. He was carried off to Ingolstat, and lived some 
days after, but died of that wound the same day as the king 
had his horse shot under him at the siege of that town. 

We made no question of passing the river here, having 
brought everything so forward, and with such extraordinary 
success ; but we should have found it a very hot piece of 
work if Tilly had lived one day more ; and, if I may give my 
opinion of it, having seen Tilly's battery and breastwork, in 
the face of which we must have passed the river, I must say, 
that whenever we had marched, if Tilly had fallen in with his 
horse and foot, placed in that trench, the whole army would 
have passed as much danger as in the face of a strong town 
in the storming a counterscarp. The king himself, when he 
saw with what judgment Tilly had prepared his works, and 
what danger he must have run, would often say, that day's 
success was eveiy way equal to the victory of Leipsic. 

Tilly being hurt and carried off, as if the soul of the army 
had been lost, they began to draw off'; the Duke of- Bavaria 
took horse, and rid away as if he had fled out of battle for 
his life. 



TILLY SLAIN AND HIS ARMY DEFEATED. 



77 



The other generals, with a little more caution, as well as 
courage, drew off by degrees, sending their cannon and bag- 
gage away first, and leaving some to continue firing on the 
bank of the river to conceal their retreat. The river pre- 
venting any intelligence, we knew nothing of the disaster be- 
fallen them; and the king, who looked for blows, having 
finished his bridge and ravelin, ordered to run a line of pali- 
sadoes, to take in more ground on the bank of the river, to 
cover the first troops he should send over ; this being finished 
the same night, the king sends over a party of his guards to 
relieve the men who were in the ravelin, and commanded six 
hundred musketeers to man the new line out of the Scots' 
brigade. 



CHAPTER VI. 

FARTHER PROCEEDINGS OF THE CAMPAIGN DANGEROUS 

SKIRMISH BEFORE AUSBURG GENERAL TILLY DIES ALMOST 

AT THE .MINUTE THE KING HAS HIS HORSE SHOT UNDER 

HIM FURTHER PROCEEDINGS TAKING OF FREYNSTAT 

BATTLE OF ATTEMBERGH GALLANTRY OF A SAXON CAPTAIN 

1 AM TAKEN BY THE ENEMY DEATH OF THE KING. 



Early in the morning, a small party of Scots, commanded 
by one Captain Forbes, of my Lord Rea's regiment, were 
sent out to learn something of the enemy, the king observing 
they had not fired all night ; and while this party were abroad, 
the army stood in battalia, and my old friend, Sir John 
Hepburn, whom of all men the king most depended upon for 
any desperate service, was ordered to pass the bridge with his 
brigade, and to draw up without the line, with command to 
advance as he found the horse, who were to second him, 
came over. 

Sir John being passed without the trench, meets Captain 
Forbes with some prisoners, and the good news ol the enemy's 
retreat. He sends him directly to the king, who was by this 
time at the head of his army, in full battalia, ready to follow 
his vanguard, expecting a hot day's work of it. Sir John 
sends messenger after messenger to the king, entreating him 
to give him orders to advance ; but the king would not suffer 
him ; for he was ever upon his guard, and would not venture 



78 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIEK. 

a surprise ; so the army continued on this side the Lech all 
day and the next night. In the morning the king sent for 
me, and ordered me to draw out three hundred horse, and a 
colonel with six hundred horse, and a colonel with eight 
hundred dragoons, and ordered us to enter the wood by three 
ways, but so as to be able to relieve one another ; and then 
ordered Sir John Hepburn, with his brigade, to advance to 
the edge of the wood, to secure our retreat ; and at the same 
time commanded another brigade of foot to pass the bridge, 
if need were, to second Sir John Hepburn, so warily did this 
prudent general proceed. 

We advanced with our horse into the Bavarian camp, 
which we found forsaken ; the plunder of it was inconsider- 
able, for the exceeding caution the king had used gave them 
time to carry off all their baggage ; we followed them three 
or four miles, and returned to our camp. 

I confess I was most diverted that day with viewing the 
works which Tilly had cast up, and must own again, that had 
he not been taken off, we had met with as desperate a piece 
of work as ever was attempted. The next day the rest of the 
cavalry came up to us, commanded by G-ustavus Horn, and 
the king and the whole army followed ; we advanced through 
the heart of Bavaria, took Rain at the first summons, and 
several other small towns, and sat down before Ausburg. 

Ausburg, though a protestant city, had a popish Bavarian 
garrison in it of above five thousand men, commanded by a 
Fugger, a great family in Bavaria. The governor had posted 
several little parties, as outscouts, at the distance of two- miles 
and a half, or three miles, from the town. The king, at his 
coming up to this town, sends me with my little troop, and 
three companies of dragoons, to beat in these outscouts. The 
first party I light on was not above sixteen men, who had 
made a small barricado across the road, and stood resolutely 
upon their guard. I commanded the dragoons to alight, and 
open the barricado, which, while they resolutely performed, 
the sixteen men gave them two volleys of their muskets, and 
through the enclosures made their retreat to a turnpike about 
a quarter of a mile farther. We passed their first traverse, 
and coming up to the turnpike, I found it defended by two 
hundred musketeers. I prepared to attack them, sending 
word to the king how strong the enemy was, and desired 
some foot to be sent to me. My dragoons fell on, and though 



DANGEROUS SKIRMISH BEFORE AUSBURG. 79 

the enemy made a very hot fire, had beat them from this 
post before two hundred foot, which the king had sent me, 
had come up. Being joined with the foot, I followed the 
enemy, who retreated fighting, till they came under the can- 
non of a strong redoubt, where they drew up, and I could see 
another body of foot of about three hundred join them out of 
the works ; upon which I halted, and considering I was in 
view of the town, and a great way from the army, I faced 
about, and began to march off; as we marched I found the 
enemy followed, but kept at a distance, as if they only designed 
to observe me. I had not marched far, but I heard a volley 
of small shot, answered by two or three more, which I pre- 
sently apprehended to be at the turnpike, where I had left a 
small guard of twenty-six men, with a lieutenant. Immedi- 
ately I detached one hundred dragoons to relieve my men, 
and secure my retreat, following myself as fast as the foot 
could march. The lieutenant sent me back word, the post 
was taken by the enemy, and my men cut off; upon this I 
doubled my pace, and when I came up I found it as the lieu- 
tenant said ; for the post was taken and manned with three 
hundred musketeers, and three troops of horse ; by this time 
also I found the party in my rear made up towards me, so 
that I was like to be charged, in a narrow place, both in front 
and rear. 

I saw there was no remedy but with all my force to fall 
upon that party before me, and so to break through before 
those from the town could come up with me; Wherefore, 
commanding my dragoons to alight, I ordered them to fall on 
upon the foot ; their horse were drawn up in an enclosed field 
on one side of the road, a great ditch securing the other side, 
so that they thought, if I charged the foot in front, they would 
fall upon my flank, while those behind would charge my rear ; 
and indeed had the other come in time, they had cut me off. 
My dragoons made three fair charges on their foot, but were 
received with so much resolution, and so brisk a fire, that 
they were beaten off, and sixteen men killed. Seeing them 
so rudely handled, 'and the horse ready to fall in, I relieved 
them with one hundred musketeers, and they renewed the 
attack at the same time with my troop of horse ; flanked on 
both wings with fifty musketeers, I faced their horse, but 
did not offer to charge them ; the case grew now desperate, 
and the enemy behind were just at my^heels, with near six 



80 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

hundred men. The captain who commanded the musketeers, 
who flanked my horse, came up to me ; says he, If we 
do not force this pass all will be lost ; if you will draw out 
your troop and twenty of my foot, and fall in, I'll engage to 
keep off the horse with the rest. With all my heart, says I. 

Immediately I wheeled off my troop, and a small party of 
the musketeers followed me, and fell in with the dragoons 
and foot, who seeing the danger too, as well as I, fought like 
madmen ; the foot at the turnpike were not able to hinder our 
breaking through, so we made our way out, killing about one 
hundred and fifty of them, and put the rest into confusion. 

But now was I in as great a difficulty as before, how to 
fetch off my brave captain of foot, for they charged home 
upon him. He defended himself with extraordinary gallantry, 
having the benefit of a piece of a hedge to cover him ; but he 
lost half his men, and was just upon the point of being 
defeated, when the king, informed by a soldier that escaped 
from the turnpike, one of twenty-six, had sent a party of six 
hundred dragoons to bring me off. These came upon the spur, 
and joined with me just as I had broke through the turnpike ; 
the enemy's foot rallied behind their horse, and by this time 
their other party was come in, but seeing our relief, they drew 
off together. 

I lost above a hundred men in these skirmishes, and killed 
them about one hundred and eighty ; we secured the turn- 
pike, and placed a company of foot there, with a hundred 
dragoons, and came back well beaten to the army. The king, 
to prevent such uncertain skirmishes, advanced the ne;xt day 
in view of the town, and, according to his custom, sits down 
with his whole army within cannon-shot of their walls. 

The king won this great city by force of words ; for by 
two or three messages and letters to and from the citizens, 
the town was gained, the garrison not daring to defend them 
against their wills. His majesty made his public entrance 
into the city on the 14th of April, and, receiving the com- 
pliments of the citizens, advanced immediately to Ingolstat, 
which is accounted, and really is, the strongest town in all 
these parts. 

The town had a very strong garrison in it, and the Duke 
of Bavaria lay intrenched with his army under the walls of 
it, on the other side of the river. The king, who -never loved 
long sieges, having viewed the town, and brought his army 



THE KING'S HORSE SHOT UNDER HIM. 81 

within musket-shot of it, called a council of war, where it 
was the king's opinion, in short, that the town would lose 
him more than it was worth, and therefore he resolved to 
raise his siege. 

Here the king going to view the town, had his horse shot 
with a cannon-bullet from the works, which tumbled the 
king and his horse over one another, that everybody thought 
he had been killed, but he received no hurt at all ; that very 
minute, as near as could be learnt, General Tilly died in the 
town, of the shot he received on the bank of the Lech as 
aforesaid. 

I was not in the camp when the king was hurt, for the 
king had sentr almost all the horse and dragoons, under Gus- 
tavus Horn, to face the Duke of Bavaria's camp, and after 
that to plunder the country, which truly was a work the 
soldiers were very glad of, for it was very seldom they had 
that liberty given them, and they made very good use of it 
when it was ; for the country of Bavaria was rich and plen- 
tiful, having seen no enemy before during the whole war. 

The army having left the siege of Ingolstat, proceeds to 
take in the rest of Bavaria ; Sir John Hepburn, with three 
brigades of foot, and Gustavus Horn, with three thousand 
horse and dragoons, went to the Landshut, and took it the 
same day. The garrison was all horse, and gave us several 
camisadoes at our approach, in one of which I lost two of 
my troops, but when we had beat them into close quarters, 
they presently capitulated. The general got a great sum of 
money of the town, besides a great many presents to the 
officers. And from thence the king went on to Munich, the 
Duke of Bavaria's court ; some of the general officers would 
fain have had the plundering of the duke's palace, but the 
king was too generous ; the city paid him four hundred 
thousand dollars, and the duke's magazine was there seized, 
in which was a hundred and forty pieces of cannon, and 
small arms for above twenty thousand men. The great 
chamber of the duke's rarities was preserved by the king's 
special order, with a great deal of care. I expected to have 
stayed here some time, and to have taken a very exact account 
of this curious laboratory ; but being commanded away, I had 
no time, and the fate of the war never gave me opportunity 
to see it again. 

The imperialists, under the command of Commissary Osta, 

VOL. II. G 



82 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

had besieged Bibrach, an imperial city not very well fortified, 
and the inhabitants being under the Swede's protection, de- 
fended themselves as well as they could, but were in great 
danger, and sent several expresses to the king for help. 

The king immediately detaches a strong body of horse and 
foot, to relieve Bibrach, and would be the commander him- 
self. I marched among the horse, but the imperialists saved 
us the labour ; for the news of the king's coming frighted 
away Osta, that he left Bibrach, and hardly looked behind 
him till he got up to the Bodensee, on the confines of Swis- 
serland. 

At our return from this expedition, the king had the first 
news of Wallestein's approach, who, on the death of Count 
Tilly, being declared generalissimo of the emperor's forces, 
had played the tyrant in Bohemia, and was now advancing 
with sixty thousand men, as they reported, to relieve the 
Duke of Bavaria. 

The king, therefore, in order to be in a posture to receive 
this great general, resolves to quit Bavaria, and to expect 
him on the frontiers of Franconia ; and because he knew the 
Nurembergers, for their kindness to him, would be the first 
sacrifice, he resolved to defend that city against him what- 
ever it cost. 

Nevertheless he did not leave Bavaria without a defence ; 
but on the one hand he left Sir John Bannier, with ten 
thousand men, about Ausburg, and the Duke of Saxe-Wey- 
mer, with another like army, about Ulme and Meningen, 
with orders so to direct their march, as that they might join 
him upon any occasion in a few days. 

We encamped about Nuremberg, the middle of June. The 
army, after so many detachments, was not above nineteen 
thousand men. The imperial army, joined with the Bavarian, 
were not so numerous as was reported, but were really sixty 
thousand men. The king, not strong enough to fight, yet, 
as he used to say, was strong enough not to be forced to 
fight, formed his camp so under the cannon of Nuremberg, 
that there was no besieging the town, but they must besiege 
him too ; and he fortified his camp in so formidable a manner 
that Wallestein never durst attack him. On the 30th of 
June, Wallestein's troops appeared, and on the 5th of July, 
encamped close by the king, and posted themselves not on the 
Bavarian side, but between the king an d his own friends of 



THE KING PROMISES HIS SUPPORT TO NUREMBERG. 83 

Schwaben and Frankenland, in order to intercept his provi- 
sions, and, as they thought, to starve him out of his camp. 

Here they lay to see, as it were, who could subsist longest ; 
the king was strong in horse, for we had full eight thousand 
horse and dragoons in the army, and this gave us great ad- 
vantage in the several skirmishes we had with the enemy. 
The enemy had possession of the whole country, and had 
taken effectual care to furnish their army with provisions ; 
they placed their guards in such excellent order, to secure 
their convoys, that their waggons went from stage to stage as 
quiet as in a time of peace, and were relieved every five 
miles by parties constantly posted on the road. And thus 
the imperial general sat down by us, not doubting but he 
should force the king either to fight his way through, on very 
disadvantageous terms, or to rise for want of provisions, and 
leave the city of Nuremberg a prey to his army ; for he had 
vowed the destruction of the city, and to make it a second 
Magdeburgh. 

But the king, who was not to be easily deceived, had counter- 
mined all Wallestein's designs ; he had passed his honour to 
the Nurembergers, that he would not leave them, and they 
had undertaken to victual his army, and secure him from 
want, which they did so effectually, that he had no occasion 
to expose his troops to any hazard or fatigues for convoys or 
forage on my account whatever. 

The city of Nuremberg is a very rich and populous city, 
and the king being very sensible of their danger, had given 
his word for their defence ; and when they, being terrified 
at the threats of the imperialists, sent their deputies to 
beseech the king to take care of them ; he sent them word 
he would, and be besieged with them. They, on the other 
hand, laid in such stores of all sorts of provision, both for 
men and horse, that had Wallestein lain before it six months 
longer, there would have been no scarcity. Every private 
house was a magazine, the camp was plentifully supplied 
with all manner of provisions, and the market always full, 
and as cheap as in times of peace. The magistrates were so 
careful, and preserved so excellent an order in the disposal 
of all sorts of provision, that no engrossing of corn could be 
practised ; for the prices were every day directed at the 
town house ; and if any man offered to demand more money 
for corn, than the stated price, he could not sell, because at 

G 2 



84 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

the town store-house you might buy cheaper. Here are two 
instances of good and bad conduct ; the city of Magdeburgh 
had been entreated by the king to settle funds, and raise 
money for their provision and security, and to have a sufficient 
garrison to defend them, but they made difficulties, either to 
raise men for themselves, or to admit the king's troops to 
assist them, for fear of the charge of maintaining them ; and 
this was the cause of the city's ruin. 

The city of Nuremberg opened their arms to receive the 
assistance proffered by the Swedes, and their purses to 
defend their town and common cause, and this was the 
saving them absolutely from destruction. The rich burghers 
and magistrates kept open houses, where the officers of the 
army were always welcome ; and the council of the city 
took such care of the poor, that there was no complaining 
nor disorders in the whole city. There is no doubt but it 
cost the city a great deal of money ; but I never saw a 
public charge borne with so much cheerfulness, nor managed 
with so much prudence and conduct in my life. The city 
fed above fifty thousand mouths every day, including their 
own poor, besides themselves ; and yet, when the king had 
lain thus three months, and finding his armies longer in 
coming up than he expected, asked the burgrave how their 
magazines held out ? he answered, they desired his majesty 
not to hasten things for them, for they could mantain them- 
selves and him twelve months longer, if there was occasion. 
This plenty kept both the army and city in good health, as 
well as in good heart ; whereas nothiug was to be had of us 
but blows ; for we fetched nothing from without our works, 
nor had no business without the line, but to interrupt the 
enemy. 

The manner of the king's encampment deserves a particu- 
lar chapter. He was a complete surveyor, and a master 
in fortification, not to be outdone by anybody. He had 
posted his army in the suburbs of the town, and drawn lines 
round the whole circumference, so that he begirt the whole 
city with his army ; his works were large, the ditch deep, 
flanked with innumerable bastions, ravelins, hornworks, forts, 
redoubts, batteries, and palisadoes, the incessant work of 
eight thousand men for about fourteen days ; besides that 
the king was adding something or other to it every day ; and 
the very posture of his camp was enough to tell a bigger 



GRAND DESIGN TO PRESERVE THE CITY. 



85 



army than Wallestein's, that he was not to be assaulted in 
his trenches. 

The king's design appeared chiefly to be the preservation 
of the city; but that was not all. He had three armies 
acting abroad in three several places. G-ustavus Horn was 
on the Mosel ; the Chancellor Oxenstern about Mentz, Cologn, 
and the Rhine ; Duke William and Duke Bernard, together 
with General Bannier, in Bavaria : and though he designed 
they should all join him, and had wrote to them all to that 
purpose, yet he did not hasten them, knowing that while he 
kept the main army at bay about Nuremberg, they would, 
without opposition, reduce those several countries they were 
acting in to his power. This occasioned his lying longer in 
the camp at Nuremberg than he would have done, and this 
occasioned his giving the imperialists so many alarms by his 
strong parties of horse, of which he was well provided, that 
they might not be able to make any considerable detachments 
for the relief of their friends ; and here he showed his 
mastership in the war, for by his means his conquests went 
on as effectually as if he had been abroad himself. 

In the mean time, it was not to be expected two such 
armies should lie long so near without some action. The 
imperial army being masters of the field, laid the country for 
twenty miles round Nuremberg in a manner desolate. What 
the inhabitants could carry away had been before secured in 
such strong towns as had garrisons to protect them, and 
what was left the hungry Crabats devoured, or set on fire ; 
but sometimes they were met with by our men, who often 
paid them home for it. There had passed several small 
encounters between our parties and theirs ; and, as it falls 
out in such cases, sometimes one side, sometimes the other, 
got the better ; but I have observed, there never was anj 
party sent out by the king's special appointment, but alwaya 
came home with victory. 

The first considerable attempt, as I remember, was made 
on a convoy of ammunition. The party sent out was 
commanded by a Saxon colonel, and consisted of one thousand 
horse, and five hundred dragoons, who burnt above six 
hundred waggons, loaded with ammunition and stores for the 
army, besides taking about two thousand muskets, which 
they brought back to the army. 

The latter end of July the king received advice, that the 



86 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

imperialists had formed a magazine for provision at a town 
called Freynstat, twenty miles from Nuremberg. Hither all 
the booty and contributions raised in the Upper Palatinate, 
and parts adjacent, was brought and laid up as in a place of 
security ; a garrison of six hundred men being placed to 
defend it ; and when a quantity of provisions was got 
together, convoys were appointed to fetch it off. 

The king was resolved, if possible, to take or destroy this 
magazine ; and sending for Colonel Dubalt, a Swede, and a 
man of extraordinary conduct, he tells him his design, and 
withal, that he must be the man to put it into execution, and 
ordered him to take what forces he thought convenient. 
The colonel, who knew the town very well, and the country 
about it, told his majesty he would attempt it with all 
his heart, but he was afraid it would require some foot to 
make the attack ; But we can't stay for that, says the king ; 
you must then take some dragoons with you ; and immediately 
the king called for me. I was just coming up the stairs, as 
the king's page was come out to inquire for me ; so I went 
immediately in to the king. Here is a piece of hot work for 
you, says the king, Dubalt will tell it you ; go together and 
contrive it. 

We immediately withdrew, and the colonel told me the 
design, and what the king and he had discoursed ; that, in 
his opinion, foot would be wanted, but the king had declared 
that there was no time for the foot to march, and had proposed 
dragoons. I told him, I thought dragoons might do as well ; 
so we agreed to take sixteen hundred horse and four hundred 
dragoons. The king, impatient in his design, came into the 
room to us to know what we had resolved on, approved our 
measures, gave us orders immediately ; and turning to me, 
You shall command the dragoons, says the king, but Dubalt 
must be general in this case, for he knows the country. 
Your majesty, said I, shall be always served by me in any 
figure you please. The king wished us good speed, and 
hurried us away the same afternoon, in order to come to the 
place in time. We marched slowly on because of the 
carriages we had with us, and came to Freynstat about one 
o'clock in the night, perfectly undiscovered ; the guards were 
so negligent, that we came to the very port before they had 
notice of us, and a Serjeant with twelve dragoons thrust in 
upon the out-sentinels, and killed them without noise. 



TAKING OF FREYNSTAT. 87 

Immediately ladders were placed to the half-moon, which 
defended the gate, which the dragoons mounted and carried 
in a trice, about twenty-eight men being cut in pieces within. 
As soon as the ravelin was taken, they burst open the gate, 
at which I entered, at the head of two hundred dragoons, and 
seized the drawbridge. By this time the town was in alarm, 
and the drums beat to arms, but it was too late ; for, by the 
help of a petard, we broke open the gate and entered the 
town. The garrison made an obstinate fight for about half 
an hour, but our men being all in, and three troops of horse 
dismounted coming to our assistance with their carabines, the 
town was entirely mastered by three of the clock, and guards 
set to prevent anybody running to give notice to the enemy. 
There were about two hundred of the garrison killed, and the 
rest taken prisoners. The town being thus secured, the gates 
were opened, and Colonel Dubalt came in with the horse. 

The guards being set, we entered the magazine, where we 
found an incredible quantity of all sorts of provision. There 
was one hundred and fifty tons of bread, eight thousand sacks 
of meal, four thousand sacks of oats, and of other provisions 
in proportion. We caused as much of it as could be loaded 
to be brought away in such waggons and carriages as we 
found, and set the rest on fire, town and all ; we stayed by 
it till we saw it past a possibility of being saved, and then 
drew off with eight hundred waggons, which we found in 
the place, most of which we loaded with bread, meal, and 
oats. While we were doing this, we sent a party of dragoons 
into the fields, who met us again as we came out, with above 
a thousand head of black cattle, besides sheep. 

Our next care was to bring this booty home without 
meeting with the enemy ; to secure which, the colonel imme- 
diately despatched an express to the king, to let him know 
of our success, and to desire a detachment might be made to 
secure our retreat, being charged with so much plunder. 

And it was no more than need ; for though we had used 
all the diligence possible to prevent any notice, yet somebody 
more forward than ordinary had escaped away, and carried 
news of it to the imperial army. The general upon this bad 
news, detaches Major-general Sparr, with a body of six thou- 
sand men, to cut off our retreat. The king, who had notice 
of this detachment, marches out in person, with three thousand 
men, to wait upon General Sparr. All this was the account 



88 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

of one day. The king met General Sparr at the moment 
-when his troops were divided, fell upon them, routed one 
part of them, and the rest in a few hours after ; killed them 
a thousand men, and took the general prisoner. 

In the interval of this action, we came safe to the camp 
with our booty, which was very considerable, and would 
have supplied our whole army for a month. Thus we feasted 
at the enemy's cost, and beat them into the bargain. 

The king gave all the live cattle to the Nurembergers, 
who, though they had really no want of provisions, yet fresh 
meat was not so plentiful as such provisions which were 
stored up in vessels and laid by. 

After this skirmish, we had the country more at command 
than before, and daily fetched in fresh provisions and forage 
in the fields. 

The two armies had now lain a long time in sight of one 
another, and daily skirmishes had considerably weakened 
them ; and the king beginning to be impatient, hastened the 
advancement of his friends to join him, in which also they 
were not backward ; but having drawn together their forces 
from several parts, and all joined the Chancellor Oxenstern, 
news came the 15th of August, that they were in full .march 
to join us ; and being come to a small town called Brock, the 
king went out of the camp with about one thousand horse to 
view them. I went along with the horse, and, the 22nd of 
August, saw the review of all the armies together, which 
were thirty thousand men in extraordinary equipage, old 
soldiers, and commanded by officers of the greatest conduct 
and experience in the world. There was the rich Chancellor 
of Sweden, who commanded as general, Gustavus Horn, and 
John Bannier, both Swedes and old generals ; Duke William 
and Duke Bernard of Weymar, the landgrave of Hesse Cassel, 
the palatine of Birkenfelt, and abundance of princes and 
lords of the empire. 

The armies being joined, the king, who was now a match 
for Wallestein, quits his camp, and draws up in battalia 
before the imperial trenches ; but the scene was changed. 
Wallestein was no more able to fight now than the king was 
before, but, keeping within his trenches, stood upon his guard. 
The king coming up close to his works, plants batteries, and 
cannonaded him in his very camp. 

The imperialists finding the king press upon them, retreat 



BATTLE OP ATTEMBERGH. 89 

into a woody country about three leagues, and taking posses- 
sion of an old ruined castle, posted their army behind it. 

This old castle they fortified, and placed a very strong 
guard there. The king having viewed the place, though it 
was a very strong post, resolved to attack it with the whole 
right wing. The attack was made with a great deal of order 
and resolution, the king leading the first party on with sword 
in hand, and the fight was maintained on both sides with the 
utmost gallantry and obstinacy, all the day, and the next 
night too ; for the cannon and musket never gave over till 
the morning. But the imperialists having the advantage of 
the hill, of their works and batteries, and being continually 
relieved, and the Swedes naked, without cannon or works, 
the post was maintained ; and the king finding it would cost 
him too much blood, drew off in the morning. 

This was the famous fight at Attembergh, where the 
imperialists boasted to have shown the world the King of 
Sweden was not invincible. They call it the victory at 
Attembergh ; 'tis true, the king failed in his attempt of carry- 
ing their works, but there was so little of a victory in it, that 
the imperial general thought fit not to venture a second brush, 
but to draw off their army, as soon as they could, to a safer 
quarter. 

I had no share in this attack, very few of the horse being 
in the action ; but my comrade who was always among the 
Scots volunteers, was wounded and taken prisoner by the 
enemy. They used him very civilly, and the king and 
Wallestein straining courtesies with one another, the king 
released Major-general Sparr without ransom, and the imperial 
general sent home Colonel Tortenson, a Swede, and sixteen 
volunteer gentlemen, who were taken in the heat of the action, 
among whom my captain was one. 

The king lay fourteen days facing the imperial army, and 
using all the stratagems possible to bring them to a battle, 
but to no purpose ; during which time we had parties con- 
tinually out, and very often skirmishes with the enemy. 

I had a command of one of these parties in an adventure, 
wherein I got no booty, nor much ' honour. The king had 
received advice of a convoy of provisions which was to come 
to the enemy's camp from the Upper Palatinate, and having 
a great mind to surprise them, he commanded us to waylay 
them with twelve hundred horse, and eight hundred dragoons. 



90 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

I had exact directions given me of the way they were to come, 
and posting my horse in a village a little out of the road, I lay 
with my dragoons in a wood, by which they were to pass by 
break of day. The enemy appeared with their convoy, and 
being very wary, their outscouts discovered us in the wood, 
and fired upon the centinel I had posted in a tree at the 
entrance of the wood. Finding myself discovered, I would 
have retreated to the village where my horse were posted, but 
in a moment the wood was skirted with the enemy's horse, 
and a thousand musketeers advanced to beat me out. In this 
pickle I sent away three messengers, one after the other, for 
the horse, who were within two miles of me, to advance to 
my relief; but all my messengers fell into the enemy's hands. 
Four hundred of my dragoons on foot, whom I had placed at 
a little distance before me, stood to their work, and beat off 
two charges of the enemy's foot, with some loss on both sides ; 
mean time, two hundred of my men faced about, and rushing 
out of the wood, broke through a party of the enemy's horse, 
who stood to watch our coming out. I confess I was exceed- 
ingly surprised at it, thinking those fellows had done it to 
make their escape, or else were gone over to the enemy; and 
my men were so discouraged at it, that they began to look 
about which way to run to save themselves, and were just 
upon the point of disbanding to shift for themselves, when one 
of the captains called to me aloud to beat a parley and treat. 
I made no answer, but, as if I had not heard him, immediately 
gave the word for all the captains to come together. The 
consultation was but short, for the musketeers were advancing 
to a third charge, with numbers which we were not likely to 
deal with. In short, we resolved to beat a parley, and demand 
quarter, for that was all we could expect ; when on a sudden 
the body of horse I had posted in the village, being directed 
by the noise, had advanced to relieve me, if they saw occasion, 
and had met the two hundred dragoons, who guided them 
directly to the spot where they had broke through, and 
altogether fell upon the horse of the enemy who were posted 
on that side, and mastering them before they could be relieved, 
cut them all to pieces, and brought me off. Under the shelter 
of this party, we made good our retreat to the village, but we 
lost above three hundred men, and were glad to make oft' 
from the village too, for the enemy were very much too strong 
for us. 



OBLIGED SPEEDILY TO RETREAT. 91 

Returning thence towards the camp, we fell foul with two 
hundred Crabats, who had been upon the plundering account. 
We made ourselves some amends upon them for our former 
loss, for we showed them no mercy ; but our misfortunes were 
not ended, for we had but just despatched those Crabats, 
when we fell in with three thousand imperial horse, who, on 
the expectation of the aforesaid convoy, were sent out to 
secure them. 

All I could do, I could not persuade my men to stand their 
ground against this party ; so that, finding they would run 
away in confusion, I agreed to make off, and facing to the 
right, we went over a large common at full trot, till at last 
fear, which always increases in a flight, brought us to a plain 
flight, the enemy at our heels. I must confess I was never 
so mortified in my life ; it was to no purpose to turn head, 
no man would stand by us, we run for life, and a great many 
we left by the way, who were either wounded by the enemy's 
shot, or else could not keep race with us. 

At last, having got over the common, which was near two 
miles, we came to a lane. One of our captains, a Saxon by 
country, and a gentleman of a good fortune, alighted at the 
entrance of the lane, and with a bold heart faced about, shot 
his own horse, and called his men to stand by him and defend 
the lane. Some of his men halted, and we rallied about six 
hundred men, which we posted as well as we could, to defend 
the pass ; but the enemy charged us with great fury. 

The Saxon gentleman, after defending himself with exceed- 
ing gallantry, and refusing quarter, was killed upon the spot. 
A German dragoon, as I thought him, gave me a rude blow 
with the stock of his piece on the side of my head, and was 
just going to repeat it, when one of my men shot him dead. 
I was so stunned with the blow, that I knew nothing ; but 
recovering, I found myself in the hands of two of the enemy's 
officers, who offered me quarter, which I accepted ; and indeed, 
to give them their due, they used me very civilly. Thus this 
whole party was defeated, and not above five hundred men 
got safe to the army, nor had half the number escaped, had 
not the Saxon captain made so bold a stand at the head of 
the lane. 

Several other parties of the king's army revenged the 
quarrel, and paid them home for it ; but I had a particular 
loss in this defeat, that I never saw the king after; for though 



92 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. 

his majesty sent a trumpet to reclaim us as prisoners the very 
next day, yet I was not delivered, some scruple happening 
about exchanging, till after the battle of Lutzen, where that 
gallant prince lost his life. 

The imperial army rose from their camp about eight or ten 
days after the king had removed, and I was carried prisoner 
in the army till they sat down to the siege of Coburgh Castle, 
and then was left with other prisoners of war, in the custody 
of Colonel Spezuter, in a small castle near the camp called 
Newstad. Here we continued indifferent well treated, but 
could learn nothing of what action the armies were upon, till 
the Duke of Friedland, having been beaten off from the castle 
of Coburgh, marched into Saxony, and the prisoners were 
sent for into the camp, as was said, in order to be exchanged. 

I came into the imperial leaguer at the siege of Leipsic, and 
within three days after my coming, the city was surrendered, 
and I got liberty to lodge at my old quarters in the town upon 
my parole. 

The King of Sweden was at the heels of the imperialists ; 
for finding Wallestein resolved to ruin the elector of Saxony, 
the king had re-collected as much of his divided army as he 
could, and came upon him just as he was going to besiege 
Torgau. 

As it is not my design to write a history of any more of 
these wars than I was actually concerned in, so I shall only 
note, that, upon the king's approach, Wallestein halted, and 
likewise called all his troops together, for he apprehended the 
king would fall on him ; and we that were prisoners fancied 
the imperial soldiers went unwillingly out, for the very name 
of the King of Sweden was become terrible to them. In short, 
they drew all the soldiers of the garrison they could spare out 
of Leipsic, and sent for Papenheim again, who was gone but 
three days before, with six thousand men, on a private expe- 
dition. On the 16th of November, the armies met on the 
plains of Lutzen ; a long and bloody battle was fought, the 
imperialists were entirely routed and beaten, twelve thousand 
slain upon the spot, their cannon, baggage, and two thousand 
prisoners taken, but the King of Sweden lost his life, being 
killed at the head of his troops in the beginning of the fight. 



93 



chapter vn. 

GREAT LAMENTATIONS FOR THE LOSS OP THE KING THE 

TOWN OF LEIPSIC RECOVERED BY STRATEGEM, WHEREBY 

I REGAIN MY LIBERTY 1 LEAVE THE SERVICE, AND 

SPEND TWO YEARS A WANDERER— BATTLE OF NORDLINGEN 

BRAVERY OF OLD HORN MELANCHOLY EVENT OF THE 

BATTLE 1 LEAVE THE ARMY, AND VISIT HOLLAND 

RETURN TO ENGLAND — PROCEEDINGS THERE. 

It is impossible to describe the consternation the death of this 
conquering king struck into all the prices of Germany ; the 
grief for him exceeded all manner of human sorrow. All 
people looked upon themselves as ruined and swallowed up; 
the inhabitants of two-thirds of all Germany put themselves 
into mourning for him ; when the ministers mentioned him 
in their sermons or prayers, whole congregations would burst 
out into tears. The elector of Saxony was utterly inconsol- 
able, and would for several days walk about his palace like a 
distracted man, crying the saviour of Germany was lost, the 
refuge of abused princes was gone, the soul of the war was 
dead ; and from that hour was so hopeless of outliving the 
war, that he sought to make peace with the emperor. 

Three days after this mournful victory, the Saxons recovered 
the town of Leipsic by stratagem. 

The Duke of Saxony's forces lay at Torgau, and perceiving 
the confusion the imperialists were in at the news of the over- 
throw ot their army, they resolved to attempt the recovery of 
the town. They sent about twenty scattering troopers, who, 
pretending themselves to be imperialists fled from the battle, 
were let in one by one, and still, as they came in, they stayed 
at the court of guard in the port, entertaining the soldiers with 
discourse about the fight, and how they escaped, and the like ; 
till the whole number being got in, at a watchword, they fell 
on the guard, and cut them all to pieces; and immediately 
opening the gates to three troops of Saxon horse, the town 
was taken in a moment. 

It was a welcome surprise to me, for I was at liberty of 



94 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

course ; and the war being now on another foot, as I thought, 
and the king dead, I resolved to quit the service. 

I had sent my man, as I have already noted, into England, 
in order to bring over the troops my father had raised for the 
King of Sweden. He executed his commission so well, that 
he landed with five troops at Embden, in very good condi- 
tion; and orders were sent them by the king, to join the 
Duke of Lunenberg's army ; which they did at the siege of 
Boxtude, in Lower Saxony. 

Here, by long and very sharp service, they were most of 
them cut off, and though they were several times recruited, 
yet I understood there were not three full troops left. 

The Duke of Saxe Weymar, a gentleman of great courage, 
had the command of the army after the king's death, and 
managed it with so much prudence, that all things were in as 
much order as could be expected, after so great a loss ; for 
the imperialists were everywhere beaten, and Wallestein never 
made any advantage of the king's death. 

I waited on him at Hailbron, whither he was gone to meet 
the great Chancellor of Sweden, where I paid him my respects, 
and desired he would bestow the remainder of my regiment 
on my comrade the captain, which he did with all the civility 
and readiness imaginable. So I took my leave of him, and 
prepared to come for England. 

I shall only note this, that, at this diet, the protestant 
princes of the empire renewed their league with one another, 
and with the crown of Sweden, and came to several regula- 
tions and conclusions for the carrying on the war, which they 
afterwards prosecuted under the direction of the said chan- 
cellor of Sweden. But it was not the work of a small diffi- 
culty, nor of a short time ; and having been persuaded to 
continue almost two years afterwards at Frankfort, Hailbron, 
and thereabout, by the particular friendship of that noble wise 
man, and extraordinary statesman, Axel Oxenstern, chan- 
cellor of Sweden, I had opportunity to be concerned in, and 
present at, several treaties of extraordinary consequence, suf- 
ficient for a history, if that were my design. 

Particularly I had the happiness to be present at, and have 
some concern in, the treaty for the restoring the posterity of 
the truly noble Palsgrave, King of Bohemia. King James 
of England had indeed too much neglected the whole family ; 



SPEND TWO YEARS AS A WANDERER. 



95 



and I may say with authority enough, from my own know- 
ledge of affairs, had nothing been done for them but what 
was from England, that family had remained desolate and 
forsaken to this day. 

But that glorious king, whom I can never mention without 
some remark of his extraordinary merit, had left particular 
instructions with his chancellor to rescue the Palatinate to 
its rightful lord, as a proof of his design to restore the liberty 
of Germany, and reinstate the oppressed princes who were 
subjected to the tyranny of the house of Austria. 

Pursuant to this resolution, the chancellor proceeded very 
much like a man of honour; and though the King of Bohemia 
was dead a little before, yet he carefully managed the treaty, 
answered the objections of several princes, who, in the general 
ruin of the family, had reaped private advantages, settled the 
capitulations for the quota of contributions very much for 
their advantage, and fully re-installed the Prince Charles in the 
possession of all his dominions in the Lower Palatinate, which 
afterwards was confirmed to him and his posterity by the 
peace of Westphalia, where all these bloody wars were 
finished in a peace, which has since been the foundation of 
the Protestants' liberty, and the best security of the whole 
empire. 

I spent two years rather in wandering up and down than 
travelling, for though I had no mind to serve, yet I could 
not find in my heart to leave Germany ; and I had obtained 
some so very close intimacies with the general officers, that I 
was often in the army, and sometimes they did me the honour 
to bring me into their councils of war. 

Particularly at that eminent council before the battle of 
Nordlingen, I was invited to the council of war, both by 
Duke Bernard of Weymar, and by Gustavus Horn. They 
were generals of equal worth, and their courage and expe- 
rience had been sc well and so often tried, that more than 
ordinary regard was always given to what they said. Duke 
Bernard was indeed the younger man, and Gustavus had 
served longer under our great schoolmaster the king ; but it 
was hard to judge which was the better general, since both 
had experience enough, and shown undeniable proofs both of 
their bravery and conduct. 

I am obliged, in the course of my relation, so often to 



96 MEMOIRS OF A. CAVALIEB. 

mention the great respect I often received from these great 
men, that it makes me sometimes jealous, lest the reader 
may think I affect it as a vanity. The truth is, and I am 
ready to confess the honours I received, upon all occasions, 
*Vom persons of such worth, and who had such an eminent 
share in the greatest action of that age, very much pleased 
me; and particularly, as they gave me occasions to see 
everything that was doing on the whole stage of the war : 
for, being under no command, but at liberty to rove about, I 
could come to no Swedish garrison or party, but, sending 
my name to the commanding officer, I could have the word 
sent me ; and if I came into the army, I was often treated 
as I was now at this famous battle of Nordlingen. 

But I cannot but say, that I always looked upon this 
particular respect to be the effect of more than ordinary 
regard the great King of Sweden always showed me, rather 
than any merit of my own ; and the veneration they all had 
for his memory made them continue to show me all the 
marks of a suitable esteem. 

But to return to the council of war; the great, and indeed 
the only question before us was, shall we give battle to the 
imperialists or not? Gustavus Horn was against it, and 
gave, as I thought, the most invincible arguments against a 
battle that reason could imagine. 

First, they were weaker than the enemy by above five 
thousand men. 

Secondly, the cardinal infant of Spain, who was in the 
imperial army, with eight thousand men, was but there en 
passant, being going from Italy to Flanders, to take upon 
him the government of the Low Countries; and if he saw no 
prospect of immediate action, would be gone in a few days. 

Thirdly, they had two reinforcements, one of five thou- 
sand men, under the command of Colonel Cratz, and one of 
seven thousand men, under the Rhinegrave, who were just 
at hand, the last within three days' march of them. And, 

Lastly, they had already saved their honour, in that they 
had put six hundred foot into the town of Nordlingen, in the 
face of the enemy's army, and consequently the town might 
hold out some days the longer. 

Fate rather than reason certainly blinded the rest of the 
generals against such arguments as these. Duke Bernard, 



BRAVERY OF OLD GENERAL HORN. 97 

and almost all the generals, were for fighting, alleging the 
affront it would be to the Swedish reputation to see their 
friends in the town lost before their faces. 

Gustavus Horn stood stiff to his cautious advice, and was 
against it ; and I thought the Baron D'Offkirk treated him a 
little indecently; for, being very warm in the matter, he 
told them, That if Gustavus Adolphus had been governed 
by such cowardly council, he had never been conqueror of 
half Germany in two years. No, replied old General Horn, 
very smartly, but he had been now alive to have testified for 
me that I was never taken by him for a coward ; and yet, 
says he, the king was never for a victory with a hazard, 
when he could have it without. 

I was asked my opinion, which I would have declined, 
being in no commission, but they pressed me to speak. I 
told them I was for staying at least till the Rhinegrave came 
up, who at least might, if expresses were sent to hasten 
him, be up with us in twenty-four hours. But Offkirk 
could not hold his passion, and, had not he been overruled, 
he would have almost quarrelled with Marshal Horn. Upon 
which the old general, not to foment him, with a great deal 
of mildness stood up, and spoke thus : 

Come, Offkirk, says he, I'll submit my opinion to you 
and the majority of our fellow-soldiers; we will fight, but 
upon my word we shall have our hands full. 

The resolution thus taken, they attacked the imperial 
army. I must confess the councils of this day seemed as 
confused as the resolutions of the night. 

Duke Bernard was to lead the van of the left wing, and 
to post himself upon a hill which was on the enemy's right 
without their intrenchments ; so that, having secured that 
post, they might level their cannon upon the foot, who stood 
behind the lines, and relieved the town at pleasure. He 
marched accordingly by break of day, and, falling with 
great fury upon eight regiments of foot, which were posted 
at the foot of the hill, he presently routed them, and made 
himself master of the post. Flushed with this success, he 
never regards his own concerted measures of stopping there, 
and possessing what he had got, but pushes on, and falls in 
with the main body of the enemy's army. 

While this was doing, Gustavus Horn attacks another 
post on a hill, where the Spaniards had posted, and lodged 

VOL. II. H 



98 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

themselves behind some works they had cast up on the side 
of the hill; here they defended themselves with extreme 
obstinacy for five hours, and at last obliged the Swedes to 
give it over with loss. This extraordinary gallantry of the 
Spaniards was the saving of the imperial army ; for Duke 
Bernard having all this while resisted the frequent charges of 
the imperialists, and borne the weight of two-thirds of their 
army, was not able to stand any longer ; but, sending one 
messenger in the neck of another to Gustavus Horn for 
more foot, he finding he could not carry his point, had given 
it over, and was in full march to second the duke. But now 
it was too late ; for the King of Hungary seeing the duke's 
men as it were wavering, and having notice of Horn's 
wheeling about to second him, falls in with all his force 
upon his flank, and, with his Hungarian hussars, made such 
a furious charge, that the Swedes could stand no longer. 

The rout of the left wing was so much the more unhappy, 
as it happened just upon Gustavus Horn's coming up ; for, 
being pushed on with the enemies at their heels, they were 
driven upon their own friends, who, having no ground to 
open and give them way, were trodden down by their own 
runaway brethren. This brought all into the utmost con^ 
fusion. The imperialists cried Victoria, and fell into the 
middle of the infantry with a terrible slaughter. 

I have always observed, it is fatal to upbraid an old 
experienced officer with want of courage. If Gustavus 
Horn had not been whetted with the reproaches of the 
Baron D'Offkirk, and some of the other general officers, I 
believe it had saved the lives of a thousand men ; for, when 
all was thus lost, several officers advised him to make a 
retreat with such regiments as he had yet unbroken ; but 
nothing could persuade him to stir a foot, but, turning his 
flank into a front, he saluted the enemy as they passed by 
him in pursuit of the rest, with such terrible volleys of small 
shot, as cost them the lives of abundance of their men. 

The imperialists, eager in the pursuit, left him unbroken, 
till the Spanish brigade came up and charged him. These 
he bravely repulsed with a great slaughter, and after them a 
body of dragoons ; till being laid at on every side, and most 
of his men killed, the brave old general, with all the rest who 
were left, were made prisoners. 

The Swedes had a terrible loss here, for almost all their 



MELANCHOLY EVENT OF THE BATTLE. 99 

infantry were killed or taken prisoners. Gustavus Horn re- 
fused quarter several times; and still those that attacked 
him were cut down by his men, who fought like furies, and, 
by the example of their general, behaved themselves like 
lions. But at last, these poor remains of a body of the 
bravest men in the world, were forced to submit. I have 
heard him say, he had much rather have died than been 
taken, but that he yielded in compassion to so many brave 
men as were about him ; for none of them would take quarter 
till he gave his consent. 

I had the worst share in this battle that ever I had in any 
action of my life ; and that was, to be posted among as brave 
a body of horse as any in Germany, and yet not be able to 
succour our own men ; but our foot were cut in pieces, as it 
were, before our faces ; and the situation of the ground was 
such as we could not fall in. All that we were able to do, 
was to carry off about two thousand of the foot, who, run- 
ning away in the rout of the left wing, rallied among our 
squadrons, and got away with us. Thus we stood till we 
saw all was lost, and then made the best retreat we could to 
save ourselves ; several regiments having never charged nor 
fired a shot; for the foot had so embarrassed themselves 
among the lines and works of the enemy, and in the vine- 
yards and mountains, that the horse were rendered abso- 
lutely unserviceable. 

The Rhinegrave had made such expedition to join us, 
that he reached within three miles of the place of action that 
night, and he was a great safeguard for us in rallying our 
dispersed men, who else had fallen into the enemy's hands, 
and in checking the pursuit of the enemy. 

And indeed, had but any considerable body of the foot 
made an orderly retreat, it had been very probable they had 
given the enemy a brush that would have turned the scale of 
victory; for our horse being whole, and in a manner un- 
touched, the enemy found such a check in the pursuit, that 
sixteen hundred of their forwardest men, following too eagerly, 
fell in with the Rhinegrave's advanced troops the next day, 
and were cut in pieces without mercy. 

This gave us some satisfaction for the loss, but it was but 
small compared to the ruin of that day. We lost near eight 
thousand men upon the spot, and above three thousand pri- 
soners, all our cannon and baggage, and a hundred and 

H 2 
LOI 



100 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

twenty colours. I thought I never made so indifferent a 
figure in my life, and so we thought all; to come away, lose 
our infantry, our general, and our honour, and never fight 
for it. Duke Bernard was utterly disconsolate for old Gus- 
tavus Horn ; for he concluded him killed ; he tore the hair 
from his head like a madman, and telling the Bhinegrave the 
story of the council of war, would reproach himself with not 
taking his advice, often repeating it in his passion. It is I, 
said he, have been the death of the bravest general in Ger- 
many ; would call himself fool and boy, and such names, for 
not listening to the reasons of an old experienced soldier. 
But when he heard he was alive in the enemy's hands, he 
was the easier, and applied himself to the recruiting his 
troops, and the like business of the war ; and it was not long 
before he paid the imperialists with interest. 

I returned to Franckfort au Main after this action, which 
happened the 17th of August, 1634; but the progress of the 
imperialist was so great that there was no staying at Franck- 
fort. The Chancellor Oxenstern removed to Magdeburg, 
Duke Bernard and the landgrave marched into Alsatia, and 
the imperialists carried all before them for all the rest of the 
campaign. They took Philipsburgh by surprise ; they took 
Ausburgh by famine, Spire and Treves by sieges, taking the 
elector prisoner. But this success did one piece of service to 
the Swedes, that it brought the French into the war on their 
side ; for the elector of Treves was their confederate. The 
French gave the conduct of the war to Duke Bernard. This, 
though the Duke of Saxony fell off, and fought against them, 
turned the scale so much in their favour, that they, recovered 
their losses, and proved a terror to all Germany. The 
farther accounts of the war I refer to the histories of those 
times, which I have since read with a great deal of delight. 

I confess, when I saw the progress of the imperial army 
after the battle of Nordlingen, and the Duke of Saxony turn- 
ing his arms against them, I thought their affairs declining ; 
and, giving them over for lost, I left Franckfort, and came 
down the Rhine to Cologne, and from thence into Holland. 

I came to the Hague the 8th of March, 1635, having 
spent three years and a half in Germany, and the greatest 
part of it in the Swedish army. 

I spent some time in Holland, viewing the wonderful power 
of art, which I observed in the fortifications of their towns, 



SPEND SOME TIME IN HOLLAND. 101 

where the very bastions stand on bottomless morasses, and 
yet are as firm as any in the world. There I had the oppor- 
tunity of seeing the Dutch army, and their famous general 
Prince Maurice. It is true the men behaved themselves 
well enough in action, when they were put to it, but the 
prince's way of beating his enemies without fighting, was so 
unlike the gallantry of my royal instructor, that it had no 
manner of relish with me. Our way in Germany was always 
to seek out the enemy and fight him ; and, give thejmpe- 
rialists their due, they were seldom hard to be found, but 
were as free of their flesh as we were. 

Whereas Prince Maurice would lie in a camp till he 
starved half his men, if by lying there he could but starve 
two-thirds of his enemies ; so that indeed the war in Holland 
had more of fatigues and hardships in it, and ours had more 
of fighting and blows. Hasty marches, long and unwhole- 
some encampments, winter parties counter-marching, dodg- 
ing, and intrenching, were the exercises of his men, and 
oftentimes killed him more men with hunger, cold, and dis- 
eases, than he could do with fighting ; not that it required 
less courage, but rather more, for a soldier had at any time 
rather die in the field a la coup de mousquet, than be starved 
with hunger, or frozen to death in the trenches. 

Nor do I think I lessen the reputation of that great general, 
for it is most certain he ruined the Spaniard more by spin- 
ning the war thus out in length, than he could possibly have 
done by a swift conquest ; for had he, Gustavus like, with a 
torrent of victory, dislodged the Spaniard from all the twelve 
provinces in five years (whereas he was forty years in beat- 
ing them out of seven), he had left him rich and strong at 
home, and able to keep the Dutch in constant apprehensions 
of a return of his power ; whereas, by the long continuance 
of the war, he so broke the very heart of the Spanish 
monarchy, so absolutely and irrecoverably impoverished them, 
that they have ever since languished of the disease, till they 
are fallen from the most powerful, to be the most despicable 
nation in the world. 

The prodigious charge the King of Spain was at in losing 
the seven provinces, broke the very spirit of the nation ; and 
that so much, that all the wealth of their Peruvian moun- 
tains have not been able to retrieve it ; King Philip having 
often declared that war, besides his armada for invading 



102 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

England, had cost him three hundred and seventy millions of 
ducats, and four hundred thousand of the best soldiers in 
Europe ; whereof, by an unreasonable Spanish obstinacy, 
above sixty thousand lost their lives before Ostend ; a town 
not worth a sixth part, either of the blood or money it cost 
in a siege of three years ; and which at last he had never taken, 
but that Prince Maurice thought it not worth the charge of 
defending any longer. 

However, I say, their way of fighting in Holland did not 
relish with me at all. The prince lay a long time before a 
little fort called Shenkscans, which the Spaniard took by sur- 
prise, and I thought he might have taken it much sooner. 
Perhaps it might be my mistake ; but I fancied my hero, the 
King of Sweden, would have carried it sword in hand in half 
the time. 

However it was, I did not like it ; so in the latter end of 
the year I came to the Hague, and took .shipping for England, 
where I arrived, to the great satisfaction of my father, and all 
my friends. 

My father was then in London, and carried me to kiss the 
king's hand. His majesty was pleased to receive me very 
well, and to say a great many very obliging things to my 
father upon my account. 

I spent my time very retired from court, for I was almost 
wholly in the country ; and it being so much different from 
my genius, which hankered after a warmer sport than hunt- 
ing among our Welch mountains, I could not but be peeping 
in all the foreign accounts from Germany, to see^ who and 
who was together. There I could never hear of a battle, 
and the Germans being beaten, but I began to wish myself 
there. But when an account came of the progress of John 
Bannier, the Swedish general in Saxony, and of the constant 
victories he had there over the Saxons, I could no longer con- 
tain myself, but told my father this life was very disagreeable 
to me ; that I lost my time here, and might to much more 
advantage go into Germany, where I was sure I might make 
my fortune upon my own terms ; that, as young as I was, I 
might have been a general officer by this time, if I had not 
laid down my commission; that General Bannier, or the 
Marshal Horn, had either of them so much respect for me, 
that I was sure I might have anything of them ; and that if 
he pleased to give me leave, I would go for Germany again. 



AGAIN ACCEPT A COMMISSION. 103 

My father was very unwilling to let me go, but seeing me un- 
easy, told me, that, if I was resolved, he would oblige me to 
stay no longer in England than the next spring, and I should 
have his consent. 

The winter following began to look very unpleasant upon 
us in England, and my father used often to sigh at it ; and 
would tell me sometimes, he was afraid we should have no 
need to send Englishmen to fight in Germany. 

The cloud that seemed to threaten most was from Scotland. 
My father, who had made himself master of the arguments on 
both sides, used to be often saying, he feared there was some 
about the king who exasperated him too much against the 
Scots, and drove things too high. For my part, I confess I 
did not much trouble my head with the cause ; but all my fear 
was, they would not fall out, and we should have no fighting. I 
have often reflected since, that I ought to have known better, 
that had seen how the most flourishing provinces of Ger- 
many were reduced to the most miserable condition that ever 
any country in the world was, by the ravagings of soldiers, 
and the calamities of war. 

How much soever I was to blame, yet so it was ; I had a 
secret joy at the news of the king's raising an army, and 
nothing could have withheld me from appearing in it ; but my 
eagerness was anticipated by an express the king sent my 
father, to know if his son was in England ; and my father 
having ordered me to carry the answer myself, I waited upon 
his majesty with the messenger. The king received me with 
his usual kindness, and asked me if I was willing to serve 
him against the Scots'? 

I answered, I was ready to serve him against any that his 
majesty thought fit to account his enemies, and should count 
it an honour to receive his commands. Hereupon his majesty 
offered me a commission. I told him, I supposed there would 
not be much time for raising of men ; that if his majesty 
pleased, I would be at the rendezvous with as many gentle- 
men as I could get together, to serve his majesty as volunteers. 

The truth is, I found all the regiments of horse the king 
designed to raise, were but two as regiments : the rest of the 
horse were such as the nobility raised in several counties, and 
commanded them themselves ; and, as I had commanded a 
regiment of horse abroad, it looked a little odd to serve with 
a single troop at home; and the king took the thing presently. 



104 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

Indeed it will be a volunteer war, said the king, for the 
northern gentry have sent me an account of above four thou- 
sand horse they have already. I bowed, and told his majesty 
I was glad to hear his subjects were so forward to serve hin . 
So taking his majesty's orders to be at York by the end of 
March, I returned to my father. 



CHAPTER Vni. 

WAR WITH THE SCOTS 1 VOLUNTEER TO MEET THE ENEMY 

BAD BEHAVIOUR OF OUR MEN CONDUCT OF THE SCOTS 

BASE END OF THE EXPEDITION A PEACE CONCLUDED 

I VISIT THE SCOTCH CAMP UNCOUTH APPEARANCE OF 

THE SOLDIERS CHARACTER OF THE HIGHLANDERS. 

My father was very glad I had not taken a commission ; for, 
I know not from what kind of emulation between the western 
and northern gentry, the gentlemen of our side were not very 
forward in the service ; their loyalty to the king in the 
succeeding times made it appear it was not from any dis- 
affection to his majesty's interest or person, or to the cause ; 
but this however made it difficult for me when I came to get 
any gentleman of quality to serve with me ; so that I pre- 
sented myself to his majesty only as a volunteer, with eight 
gentlemen, and about thirty-six countrymen, well mounted 
and armed. 

And, as it proved, these were enough, for this expedition 
ended in an accommodation with the Scots ; and they not 
advancing so much as to their own borders, we never came 
to any action ; but the armies lay in the counties of North- 
umberland and Durham, eat up the country, and sent the 
king a vast sum of money, and so this war ended, a pacifi- 
cation was made, and both sides returned. 

The truth is, I never saw such a despicable appearance of 
men in arms to begin* a war in my life ; whether it was that 
1 had seen so many braver armies abroad that prejudiced me 
against them, or that it really was so ; for to me they seemed 
little better than a rabble met together to devour, rather than 
light for their king and country. There was indeed a great 
appearance of gentlemen, and those of extraordinary quality ; 




BAD BEHAVIOUR OF OUR MEN. 105 

but their garb, their equipages, and their mien, did not look 
like war ; their troops were filled with footmen and servants, 
and wretchedly armed, God wot. I believe I might say, 
without vanity, one regiment of Finland horse would have 
made sport at beating them all. There was such crowds of 
parsons (for this was a church war in particular), that the 
camp and court was full of them; and the king was so 
eternally besieged with clergymen of one sort or another, 
that it gave offence to the chief of the nobility. 

As was the appearance, so was the service. The army 
marched to the borders, and the head-quarter was at Berwick- 
upon-Tweed ; but the Scots never appeared, no, not so much 
as their scouts. Whereupon the king called a council of war, 
and there it was resolved to send the Earl of Holland, with 
a party of horse into Scotland, to learn some news of the 
enemy ; and truly the first news he brought us was, that 
finding their army encamped at Coldingham, fifteen miles from 
Berwick, as soon as he appeared, the Scots drew out a party 
to charge him ; upon which most of his men halted, I don't 
say run away, but it was next door to it ; for they could not 
be persuaded to fire their pistols, and wheel off like soldiers, 
but retreated in such a disorderly and shameful manner, that, 
had the enemy but had either the courage or conduct to have 
followed them, it must have certainly ended in the ruin of the 
whole party. 

I confess, when I went into arms at the beginning of this 
war, I never troubled myself to examine sides ; I was glad to 
hear the drums beat for soldiers, as if I had been a mere 
Swiss, that had not cared which side went up or down, so I 
had my pay. I went as eagerly and blindly about my busi- 
ness as the meanest wretch that listed in the army ; nor had 
I the least compassionate thought for the miseries of my 
native country, till after the fight at Edgehill. I had known 
as much, and perhaps more, than most in the army, what it 
was to have an enemy ranging in the bowels of a kingdom ; I 
had seen the most flourishing provinces of Germany reduced 
to perfect deserts, and the voracious Crabats, with inhuman 
barbarity, quenching the fires ot the plundered villages with 
the blood of the inhabitants. Whether this had hardened me 
against the natural tenderness which I afterwards found return 
upon me or not, I cannot tell ; but I reflected upon myself 
afterwards with a great deal of trouble for the unconcerned- 



106 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. 

ness of my temper at the approaching ruin of my native 
country. 

I was in the first army at York, as I have already noted, 
and, I must confess, had the least diversion there that ever I 
found in an army in my life ; for when I was in Germany 
with the King of Sweden, we used to see the king, with the 
general officers, every morning on horseback, viewing his 
men, his artillery, his horses, and always something going 
forward ; here we saw nothing but courtiers and clergymen, 
bishops and parsons, as busy as if the direction of the war 
had been in them. The king was seldom seen among us, and 
never without some of them always about him. 

Those few of us that had seen the wars, and would have 
made a short end of this for him, began to be very uneasy ; 
and particularly a certain nobleman took the freedom to tell 
the king, that the clergy would certainly ruin the expedition. 
The case was this, he would have had the king have immedi- 
ately marched into Scotland, and put the matter to the trial 
of a battle ; and he urged it every day ; and the king finding 
his reasons very good, would often be of his opinion ; but 
next morning he would be of another mind. 

This gentleman was a man of conduct enough, and of un- 
questioned courage, and afterwards lost his life for the king. 
He saw we had an army of young stout fellows, numerous 
enough ; and though they had not yet seen much service, he 
was for bringing them to action, that the Scots might not 
have time to strengthen themselves ; nor they have time, by 
idleness and sotting, the bane of soldiers, to make themselves 
unfit for anything. 

I was one morning in company with this gentleman, and 
as he was a warm man, and eager in his discourse, A pox of 
these priests, says he, it is for them the king has raised this 
army and put his friends to a vast charge, and now we are 
come, they won't let us fight. 

But I was afterwards convinced the clergy saw farther into 
the matter than we did. They saw the Scots had a better 
army than we had ; bold and ready, commanded by brave 
officers ; and they foresaw, that, if we fought, we should be 
beaten, and if beaten, they were undone. And it was very 
true, we had all been ruined if we had engaged. 

It is true, when we came to the pacification which followed, 
I confess I was of the same mind the gentleman had been of; 



CONDUCT OF THE SCOTS. 107 

for we had better have fought and been beaten, than have 
made so dishonourable a treaty, without striking a stroke. 
This pacification seems to me to have laid the scheme of all 
the blood and confusion which followed in the civil war ; for 
whatever the king and his niends might pretend to do by 
talking big, the Scots saw he was to be bullied into anything, 
and that, when it came to the push, the courtiers never cared 
to bring it to blows. 

I have little or nothing to say as to action in this mock 
expedition. The king was persuaded at last to march to 
Berwick ; and, as I have said already, a party of horse went 
out to learn news of the Scots, and as soon as they saw them, 
run away from them bravely. 

This made the Scots so insolent, that whereas before they 
lay encamped behind a river, and never showed themselves, 
in a sort of modest deference to their king, which was the 
pretence of not being aggressors or invaders, only arming in 
their own defence ; now, having been invaded by the English 
troops entering Scotland, they had what they wanted ; and 
to show it was not fear that restrained them before, but 
policy, now they came up in parties to our very gates, braving 
and facing us every day. 

I had, with more curiosity than discretion, put myself as 
a volunteer at the head of one of our parties of horse, under 
my Lord Holland, when they went out to discover the enemy ; 
they went, they said, to see what the Scots were a-doing. 

We had not marched far, but our scouts brought word they 
had discovered some horse, but could not come up to them 
because a river parted them. At the heels of these came 
another party of our men upon the spur to us, and said the 
enemy was behind, which might be true, for aught we knew, 
but it was so far behind that nobody could see them, and yet 
the country was plain and open for above a mile before us. 
Hereupon we made a halt, and indeed I was afraid it would 
have been an odd sort of a halt, for our men began to look 
one upon another, as they do in like cases when they are 
going to break ; and when the scouts came galloping in, the 
men were in such disorder, that, had but one man broke 
away, I am satisfied they had all run for it. 

I found my Lord Holland did not perceive it ; but after 
the first surprise was a little over, I told my lord what I had 
observed; and that unless some course was immediately 



108 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

taken, they would all run at the first sight of the enemy. I 
found he was much concerned at it, and began to consult 
what course to take to prevent it. I confess it is a hard 
question, how to make men stand and face an enemy, when 
fear has possessed their minds with an inclination to run 
away ; but I'll give that honour to the memory of that noble 
gentleman, who, though his experience in matters of war 
was small, having never been in much service, yet his courage 
made amends for it ; for I dare say he would not have turned 
his horse from an army of enemies, nor have saved his life at 
the price of running away for it. 

My lord soon saw, as well as I, the fright the men were in 
after I had given him a hint of it ; and, to encourage them, 
rode through their ranks, and spoke cheerfully to them, and 
used what arguments he thought proper to settle their minds. 
I remembered a saying which I had heard old Marshal Gus- 
tavus Horn speak in Germany, If you find your men falter, or 
in doubt, never suffer them to halt, but keep them advancing; 
for while they are going forward it keeps up their courage. 

As soon as I could get opportunity to speak to him, I gave 
him this as my opinion. That's very well, says my lord, but 
I am studying, says he, to post them so as that they can't 
run if they would ; and if they stand but once to face the 
enemy, I don't fear them afterwards. 

While we were discoursing thus, word was brought, that 
several parties of the enemies were seen on the farther side 
of the river, upon which my lord gave the word to march ; 
and as we were marching on, my lord calls out a, lieutenant, 
who had been an old soldier, with only five troopers whom 
he had most confidence in, and having given him his lesson, 
he sends him away. In a quarter of an hour, one of the five 
troopers comes back, galloping and hallooing, and tells us his 
lieutenant had with his small party beaten a party of twenty 
of the enemy's horse over the river, and had secured the pass, 
and desired my lord would march up to him immediately. 

It is a strange thing that men's spirits should be subjected 
to such sudden changes, and capable of so much alteration 
from shadows of things. They were for running before they 
saw the enemy, now they are in haste to be led on, and, but 
that in raw men we are obliged to bear with anything, the 
disorder in both was intolerable. 

The story was a premeditated sham, and not a word of 



NOVEL MIXTURE OF HORSE AND FOOT. 109 

truth in it, invented to raise their spirits, and cheat them out 
of their cowardly phlegmatic apprehensions, and my lord had 
his end in it, for they were all on lire to fall on ; and I am 
persuaded had they been led immediately into a battle begun 
to their hands, they would have laid about them like furies, 
for there is nothing like victory to flush a young soldier. 
Thus, while the humour was high, and the fermentation 
lasted, away we marched ; and passing one of their great 
commons, which they call moors, we came to the river, as he 
called it, where our lieutenant was posted with his four men. 
It was a little brook, fordable with ease, and leaving a guard 
at the pass, we advanced to the top of a small ascent, from 
whence we had a fair view of the Scots' army, as they laid 
behind another river larger than the former. 

Our men were posted well enough, behind a small enclo- 
sure, with a narrow lane in their front; and my lord had 
caused his dragoons to be placed in the front, to line the 
hedges ; and in this posture he stood viewing the enemy at a 
distance. The Scots, who had some intelligence of our 
coming, drew out three small parties, and sent them by 
different ways, to observe our number ; and forming a fourth 
party, which I guessed to be about six hundred horse, 
advanced to the top of the plain, and drew up to face us, but 
never offered to attack us. 

One of the small parties, making about a hundred men, one- 
third foot, passes upon our flank in view, but out of reach ; 
and as they marched, shouted at us, which our men, better 
pleased with that work than fighting, readily enough answered, 
and fain would have fired at them for the pleasure of making 
a noise ; for they were too far off to hit them. 

I observed that these parties had always some foot with 
them, and yet if the horse galloped or pushed on ever so 
forward, the foot were as forward as they, which was an 
extraordinary advantage. 

Gustavus Adolphus, that king of soldiers, was the first 
that I have ever observed found the advantage of mixing 
small bodies of musketeers among his horse ; and had he 
had such nimble strong fellows as these, he would have prized 
them above all the rest of his men. These were those they 
call highlanders ; they would run on foot with their arms and 
all their accoutrements, and keep very good order too, and 
yet keep pace with the horse, let them go at what rate they 



110 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

would. When I saw the loot thus interlined among the 
horse, together with the way of ordering their flying parties, 
it presently occurred to my mind, that here was some of our 
old Scots come home out of Germany, that had the ordering 
of matters ; and if so, I knew we were not a match for them. 

Thus we stood facing the enemy till our scouts brought us 
word the whole Scots' army was in motion, and in fall march 
to attack us ; and though it was not true, and the fear of our 
men doubled every object, yet it was thought convenient to 
make our retreat. The whole matter was, that the scouts 
having informed them what they could of our strength, the 
six hundred were ordered to march towards us, and three 
regiments of foot were drawn out to support the horse. 

I know not whether they would have ventured to attack 
us, at least before their foot had come up ; but whether they 
would have put it to the hazard or no, we were resolved not 
to hazard the trial, so we drew down to the pass ; and, as 
retreating looks something like running away, especially 
when an enemy is at hand, our men had much ado to make 
their retreat pass for a march, and not a flight ; and, by their 
often looking behind them, anybody might know what they 
would have done if they had been pressed. 

I confess, I was heartily ashamed when the Scots, coming 
up to the place where we had been posted, stood and shouted 
at us. I would have persuaded my lord to have charged 
them, and he would have done it with all his heart, but he 
saw it was not practicable ; so we stood at gaze with them 
above two hours, by which time their foot were come up to 
them, and yet they did not offer to attack us. I never was so 
ashamed of myself in my life; we were all dispirited; the 
Scots' gentlemen would come out single, within shot of our 
post, which, in a time of war, is always accounted a challenge 
to any single gentleman, to come out and exchange a pistol 
with them, and nobody would stir ; at last our old lieutenant 
rides out to meet a Scotsman that came pickering on his 
quarter. This lieutenant was a brave and a strong fellow, 
had been a soldier in the Low Countries ; and though he was 
not of any quality, only a mere soldier, had his preferment 
for his conduct. He gallops bravely up to his adversary, and 
exchanging their pistols, the lieutenant's horse happened to 
be killed. The Scotsman very generously dismounts, and 
engages him with his sword, and fairly masters him, and 



BASE END OF THE EXPEDITION. Ill 

carries him away prisoner ; and I think this horse was all the 
blood that was shed in that war. 

The lieutenant's name, thus conquered, was English, and 
as he was a very stout old soldier, the disgrace of it broke 
his heart. The Scotsman indeed used him very generously ; 
for he treated him in the camp very courteously, gave him 
another horse, and set him at liberty, gratis. But the man 
laid it so to heart, that he never would appear in the army, 
but went home to his own country, and died. 

I had enough of party-making, and was quite sick with 
indignation at the cowardice of the men ; and my lord was 
in as great a fret as I, but there was no remedy ; we durst 
not go about to retreat, for we should have been in such 
confusion, that the enemy must have discovered it. So my 
lord resolved to keep the post, if possible, and send to the 
king for some foot. Then were our men ready to fight with 
one another who should be the messenger ; and at last, when 
a lieutenant with twenty dragoons was despatched, he told 
us afterwards, he found himself a hundred strong before he 
was gotten a mile from the place. 

In short, as soon as ever the day declined, and the dusk of 
the evening began to shelter the designs of the men, they 
dropt away from us one by one ; and at last in such numbers, 
that, if we had stayed till the morning, we had not had fifty 
men left, out of twelve hundred horse and dragoons. 

When I saw how it was, consulting with some of the 
officers, we all went to my Lord Holland, and pressed him 
to retreat, before the enemy should discern the flight of our 
men ; so he drew us off, and we came to the camp the next 
morning, in the shamefulest condition that ever poor men 
could do. And this was the end of the worst expedition 
ever I made in my life. 

To fight and be beaten, is a casualty common to a soldier, 
and I have since had enough of it ; but to run away at the 
sight of an enemy, and neither strike or be stricken, this is 
the very shame of the profession, and no man that has done 
it, ought to show his face again in the field, unless disadvan- 
tages of place or number make it tolerable, neither of which 
was our case. 

My Lord Holland made another march a few days after, 
in hopes to retrieve this miscarriage ; but I had enough of it, 
so I kept in my quarters ; and though his men did not desert 



112 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

him as before, yet, upon the appearance of the enemy, they 
did not think fit to fight, and came off with but little more 
honour than they did before. 

There was no need to go out to seek the enemy after 
this ; for they came, as I have noted, and pitched in sight of 
us, and their parties came up every day to the very outworks 
of Berwick ; but nobody cared to meddle with them ; and in 
this posture things stood when the pacification was agreed on 
by both parties ; which, like a short truce, only gave both 
sides breath to prepare for a new war more ridiculously 
managed than the former. When the treaty was so near a 
conclusion, as that conversation was admitted on both sides, 
I went over to the Scotch camp to satisfy my curiosity, as 
many of our English officers did also. 

I confess, the soldiers made a very uncouth figure, 
especially the highlanders ; the oddness and barbarity of their 
garb and arms seemed to have something in it remarkable. 

They were generally tall swinging fellows ; their swords 
were extravagantly, and, I think, insignificantly broad, and 
they carried great wooden targets, large enough to cover the 
upper part of their bodies. Their dress was as antique as 
the rest ; a cap on their heads, called by them a bonnet, long 
hanging sleeves behind, and their doublet, breeches, and 
stockings, of a stuff they called plaid, striped across red and 
yellow, with short cloaks of the same. These fellows looked, 
when drawn out, like v a regiment of merry-andrews, ready 
for Bartholomew fair. They are in companies all of a name, 
and therefore call one another only by their christian names, 
as Jemmy, Jockey, that is, John ; and Sawny, that is, 
Alexander, and the like. And they scorn to be commanded 
but by one of their own clan or family. They are all 
gentlemen, and proud enough to be kings. The meanest 
fellow among them is as tenacious of his honour, as the best 
nobleman in the country, and they will fight and cut one 
another's throats for every trifling affront. 

But to their own clans, or lairds, they are the willingest 
and most obedient fellows in nature. Give them their due, 
were their skill in exercises and discipline proportioned to 
their courage, they would make the bravest soldiers in the 
world. They are large bodies, and prodigiously strong ; and 
two qualities they have above other nations, viz., hardy to 
endure hunger, cold, and hardships, and wonderfully swift of 



CHARACTER OF THE HIGHLANDERS. 113 

foot. The latter is such an advantage in the field, that I 
know none like it ; for if they conquer, no enemy can escape 
them ; and if they run, even the horse can hardly overtake 
them. These were some of them, who, as I observed before, 
went out in parties with their horse. 

There were three or four thousand of these in the Scots* 
army, armed only with swords and targets ; and in their 
belts some of them had a pistol, but no muskets at that time 
among them. 

But' there were also a great many regiments of disciplined 
men, who, by their carrying their arms, looked as if they 
understood their business, and by their faces, that they durst 
see an enemy. 

I had not been half an hour in their camp after the 
ceremony of giving our names, and passing their outguards 
and mainguards was over, but I was saluted by several of 
my acquaintance ; and, in particular, by one who led the 
Scotch volunteers at the taking the castle of Openheim, of 
which I have given an account. They used me with all the 
respect they thought due to me, on account of old affairs ; 
gave me the word, and a serjeant waited upon me whenever 
I pleased to go abroad. 

I continued twelve or fourteen days among them, till the 
pacification was concluded ; and they were ordered to march 
home. They spoke very respectfully of the king, but I found 
were exasperated to the last degree at Archbishop Laud and 
the English bishops, for endeavouring to impose the Common 
Prayer Book upon them ; and they always talked with the 
utmost contempt of our soldiers and army. I always waived 
the discourse about the clergy, and the occasion of the war ; 
but I could not but be too sensible what they said of our 
men was true, and by this I perceived they had an universal- 
intelligence from among us, both of what we were doing, and 
what sort of people we were that were doing it ; and they 
were mighty desirous of coming to blows with us. I had an 
invitation from their general, but I declined it, lest I should 
give offence. I found they accepted the pacification as a 
thing not likely to hold, or that they did not design should 
hold ; and that they were resolved to keep their forces on 
foot, notwithstanding the agreement. Their whole army was 
full of brave officers, men of as much experience and conduct 

VOL. II. I 



114 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

as any in the world ; and all men who know anything of 
war, know good officers presently make a good army. 

Things being thus huddled up, the English came back to 
York, where the army separated, and the Scots went home 
to increase theirs ; for I easily foresaw, that peace was the 
farthest thing from their thoughts. 



CHAPTER IX. 

WAR BREAKS OUT AGAIN IN THE NORTH — I JOIN THE 

KINO'S ARMY ACTION WITH THE SCOTS, IN WHICH THEY 

ARE VICTORIOUS GREAT DISCONTENTS IN ENGLAND 

CHARACTER OP THE KING 1 AM SENT ON A MESSAGE TO 

THE SCOTCH ARMY THE KING IS REDUCED TO SUBMIT 

TO THEIR TERMS ENCROACHMENTS OF THE PARLIAMENT 

THE GATES OF HULL SHUT AGAINST THE KING THE 

KING RAISES AN ARMY — LOYALTY OP THE ENGLISH 
GENTRY, 

The next year the flame broke out again; the king drew 
his forces down into the north, as before, and expresses 
were sent to all the gentlemen that had commands, to be at 
the place by the 15th of July. As I had accepted of no 
command in the army, so I had no inclination at all to go ; 
for I foresaw there would be nothing but disgrace attending 
it. My father observing such an alteration in my usual 
forwardness, asked me one day, what was the matter, that 
I, who used to be so forward to go into the army, and so 
eager to run abroad to fight, now showed no inclination to 
appear when the service of the king and country called me 
to it ? I told him I had as much zeal as ever for the king's 
service, and for the country too; but he knew a soldier 
could not abide to be beaten ; and being from thence a little 
more inquisitive, I told him the observations I had made in 
the Scots' army, and the people I had conversed with there ; 
And sir, says I, assure yourself, if the king offers to fight 
them, he will be beaten ; and I don't love to engage when 
my judgment tells me beforehand I shall be worsted; and, 
as I had foreseen, it came to pass ; for the Scots resolving to 



THE KING ACTS WITHOUT A PARLIAMENT. 115 

proceed, never stood upon the ceremony of aggression, as 
before, but on the 20th of August they entered England with 
their army. 

However, as my father desired, I went to the king's army, 
which was then at York, but not gotten all together: the 
king himself was at London, but upon this news takes post 
for the army, and advancing a part of his forces, he posted 
the Lord Conway and Sir Jacob Astley, with a brigade of 
foot and some horse, at Newborn, upon the river Tyne, to 
keep the Scots from passing that river. 

The Scots could have passed the Tyne without fighting; 
but, to let us see that they were able to force their passage, 
they fall upon this body of men ; and, notwithstanding all 
the advantages of the place, they beat them from the post, 
took their baggage and two pieces of cannon, with some 
prisoners. Sir Jacob Astley made what resistance he could, 
but the Scots charged with so much fury, and being also 
overpowered, he was soon put into confusion. Immediately 
the Scots made themselves masters of Newcastle, and the 
next day of Durham, and laid those two counties under 
intolerable contributions. 

Now was the king absolutely ruined ; for among his own 
people the discontents before were so plain, that had the 
clergy had any forecast, they would never have embroiled 
him with the Scots, till he had fully brought matters to an 
understanding at home ; but the case was thus : — The king, 
by the good husbandry of Bishop Juxon, his treasurer, had 
a million of ready money in his treasury, and, upon that 
account, having no need of a parliament, had not called one 
in twelve years ; and perhaps had never called another, if he 
had not, by this unhappy circumstance, been reduced to a 
necessity of it ; for now this ready money was spent in two 
foolish expeditions, and his army appeared in a condition 
not fit to engage the Scots ; the detachment under Sir Jocob 
Astley, which were of the flower of his men, had been 
routed at Newborn, and the enemy had possession of two 
entire counties. 

All men blamed Laud for prompting the king to provoke 
the Scots, a headstrong nation, and zealous for their own 
way of worship; and Laud himself found, too late, the 
consequences of it, both to the whole cause and to himself; 
for the Scots whose native temper is not easily to forgive an 

i 2 



116 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

injury, pursued him by their party into England, and never 
jgave it over, till they laid his head on the block. 

The ruined country now clamoured in his majesty's ears 
with daily petitions, and the gentry of other neighbouring 
counties cry out for peace and a parliament. The king 
embarrassed with these difficulties, and quite empty of 
money, calls a great council of the nobility at York, and 
demands their advice, which any one could have told him 
before, would be to call a parliament. 

I cannot, without regret, look back upon the misfortune of 
the king, who, as he was one of the best princes in his 
personal conduct that ever reigned in England, had yet 
some of the greatest unhappinesses in his conduct as a king, 
that ever prince had, and the whole course of his life 
demonstrated it. 

1. An impolitic honesty. His enemies called it obstinacy: 
but as I was perfectly acquainted with his temper, I cannot 
but think it was his judgment, when he thought he was in 
the right, to adhere to it as a duty, though against his interest. 

2. Too much compliance when he was complying. 

No man but himself would have denied, what at some- 
times he denied, and have granted what at other times he 
granted ; and this uncertainty of council proceeded from two 
things :— 

1. The heat of the clergy, to whom he was exceedingly 
devoted, and for whom indeed he ruined himself. 

2. The wisdom of his nobility. 

Thus, when the counsel of his priests prevailed, all was 
fire and fury ; the Scots were rebels, and must be subdued, 
and the parliament's demands were to be rejected as ex- 
orbitant. But whenever the king's judgment was led by the 
grave and steady advice of his nobility and counsellors, he 
was always inclined by them to temperate his measures 
between the two extremes ; and had he gone on in such a 
temper, he had never met with the misfortunes which after- 
wards attended him, or had so many thousands of his friends 
lost their lives and fortunes in his service. 

I am sure, we that knew what it was to fight for him, and 
that loved him better than any of the clergy could pretend 
to, have had many a consultation how to bring over our 
master from so espousing their interest, as to ruin himself 
for it ; but it was in vain. 




A FLEET SENT OUT AGAINST THE SCOTS. 117 

I took this interval, when I sat still and only looked on, 
to make these remarks, because I remember the best friends 
the king had were at this time of that opinion, that it was 
an unaccountable piece of indiscretion, to commence a quarrel 
with the Scots, a poor and obstinate people, for a ceremony 
and book of church discipline, at a time when the king stood 
but upon indifferent terms with his people at home. 

The consequence was, it put arms into the hands of his 
subjects to rebel against him; it embroiled him with his 
parliament in England, to whom he was fain to stoop in a 
fatal and unusual manner to get money, all his own being 
spent, and so to buy off the Scots, whom he could not beat off. 

I cannot but give one instance of the unaccountable politics 
of his ministers. If they overruled this unhappy king to it, 
with design to exhaust and impoverish him, they were the 
worst of traitors ; if not, the grossest of fools. They prompted 
the king to equip a fleet against the Scots, and to put on 
board it five thousand landmen. Had this been all, the design 
had been good, that while the king had faced the army upon 
the borders, these five thousand landing in the frith of Edin- 
burgh, might have put that whole nation into disorder. But, 
in order to this, they advise the king to lay out his money in 
fitting out the biggest ships he had ; and the Royal Sovereign, 
the biggest ship the world had ever seen, which cost him no 
less than 100,000/. was now built, and fitted out for this 
voyage. 

This was the most incongruous and ridiculous advice that 
could be given, and made us all believe we were betrayed, 
though we knew not by whom. 

To fit out ships of a hundred guns to invade Scotland, 
which had not one man-of-war in the world, nor any open 
cenfederacy with any prince or state that had any fleet ! it 
was a most ridiculous thing. A hundred sail of Newcastle 
colliers, to carry the men, with their stores and provisions, 
and ten frigates of forty guns each, had been as good a fleet 
as reason and the nature of the thing could have made 
tolerable. 

Thus things were carried on, till the king, beggared by 
the mismanagement of his counsels, and beaten by the Scots, 
was driven to the necessity of calling a parliament in 
England. 

It is not my design to enter into the feuds and brangles of 
this parliament. I have noted by observations of their 



118 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

mistakes, who brought the king to this happy necessity of 
calling them; 

His majesty had tried parliaments upon several occasions 
before, but never found himself so much embroiled with them 
but he could send them home, and there was an end of it ; 
but as he could not avoid calling these, so they took care to 
put him out of a condition to dismiss them. 

The Scots' army was now quartered upon the English. 
The counties, the gentry, and the assembly of lords at York, 
petitioned for a parliament. 

The Scots presented their demands to the king, in which 
it was observed, that matters were concerted between them 
and a party in England ; and I confess, when I saw that, I 
began to think the king in an ill case ; for, as the Scots pre- 
tended grievances, we thought, the king redressing those 
grievances, they could ask no more ; and therefore all men 
advised the king to grant their full demands. And 
whereas the king had not money to supply the Scots in their 
march home, I know there were several meetings of gentle- 
men with a design to advance considerable sums of money to 
the king to set him free, and in order to reinstate his majesty, 
as before. Not that we ever advised the king to rule without 
a parliament, but we were very desirous of putting him out 
of the necessity of calling them, at least, just then. 

But the eighth article of the Scots' demands expressly 
required, That an English parliament might be called to 
remove all obstructions of commerce, and to settle peace, 
religion, and liberty ; and in another article they tell the king, 
the 24th of September, being the time his majesty appointed 
for the meeting of the peers, will make it too long ere the 
parliament meet. 

And in another, That a parliament was the only way of 
settling peace, and bringing them to his majesty's obedience. 

When we saw this in the army, it was time to look about. 
Everybody perceived that the Scots' army would call an 
English parliament ; and whatever aversion the king had to 
it, we all saw he would be obliged to comply with it ; and 
now they all began to see their error, who advised the king 
to this Scotch war. 

While these things were transacting, the assembly of the 
peers met at York ; and by their advice a treaty was begun 
with the Scots. I had the honour to be sent with the first 
message, which was in writing. 



SENT MESSENGER TO THE SCOTCH ARMY.. 119 

I brought it, attended by a trumpet, and a guard of five 
hundred horse, to the Scots' quarters. I was stopped at 
Darlington, and my errand being known, General Lesly sent 
a Scots' major and fifty horse to receive me, but would let 
neither my trumpet or guard set foot within their quarters. 
In this manner, I was conducted to audience in the chapter- 
house at Durham, where a committee of Scots' lords, who 
attended the army, received me very courteously, and gave 
me their answer in writing also. 

It was in this answer tnat they showed, at least to me, 
their design of embroiling the king with his English subjects; 
they discoursed very freely with me, and did not order me to 
withdraw when they debated their private opinions. They 
drew up several answers, but did not like them ; at last, they 
gave me one which I did not receive ; I thought it was too 
insolent to be bOrne with. As near as I can remember, it 
was thus : — 

The commissioners of Scotland, attending the service in 
the army, do refuse any treaty in the city of York. 

One of the commissioners, who treated me with more dis- 
tinction than the rest, and discoursed freely with me, gave me 
an opportunity to speak more freely of this than I expected. 

I told them, if they would return to his majesty an answer 
fit for me to carry, or if they would say they would not treat 
at all, I would deliver such a message. But I entreated them 
to consider the answer was to their sovereign, and to whom 
they made a great profession of duty and respect ; and at least 
they ought to give their reasons, why they declined a treaty 
at York, and to name some other place, or humbly to desire 
his majesty to name some other place. But to send word 
they would not treat at York, I could deliver no such message, 
for, when put into English, it would signify, they would not 
treat at all. 

I used a great many reasons and arguments with them on 
this head ; and at last, with some difficulty obtained of them 
to give the reason, which was the Earl of Strafford's having 
the chief command at York, whom they declared their mortal 
enemy, he having declared them rebels in Ireland. 

With this answer I returned. I could make no observa- 
tions in the short time I was with them ; for as I stayed but one 
night, so I was guarded as a close prisoner all the while. I 
saw several of their officers whom I knew, but they durst not 



120 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. 

speak to me ; and, if they would have ventured, my guard 
would not have permitted them. 

In this manner I was conducted out of their quarters to 
my own party again, and having delivered my message to 
the king, and told his majesty the circumstances r I saw the 
king receive the account of the haughty behaviour of the 
Scots with some regret ; however, it was his majesty's time 
now to bear, and therefore the Scots were complied with, 
and the treaty appointed at Rippon ; where, after much 
debate, several preliminary articles were agreed on, as a 
cessation of arms ; quarters, and bounds to the armies ; sub- 
sistence to the Scots' army ; and the residue of the demands 
was referred to a treaty at London, &c. 

We were all amazed at the treaty, and I cannot but 
remember, we used to wish much rather we had been suffered 
to fight ; for though we had been worsted at first, the power 
and strength of the king's interest, which was not yet tried, 
must, in fine, have been too strong for the Scots ; whereas 
now we saw the king was for complying with anything, and 
all his friends would be ruined. 

I confess, I had nothing to fear, and so was not much con- 
cerned ; but our predictions soon came to pass ; for no sooner 
was this parliament called, but abundance of those who had 
embroiled their king with his people of both kingdoms, like 
the disciples, when their master was betrayed to the Jews, 
forsook him and fled ; and now parliament tyranny began to 
succeed church tyranny, and we soldiers were glad to see it 
at first. The bishops trembled, the judges went to gaol ; the 
officers of the customs were laid hold on ; and the parliament 
began to lay their fingers on the great ones, particularly 
Archbishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford. We had no 
great concern for the first, but the last was a man of so much 
conduct and gallantry, and so beloved by the soldiers and 
principal gentry of England, that everybody was touched 
with his misfortune. 

The parliament now grew mad in their turn ; and, as the 
prosperity of any party is the time to show their discretion, 
the parliament showed they knew as little where to stop as 
other people. The king was not in a condition to deny any- 
thing, and nothing could be demanded but they pushed it. 
They attainted the Earl of Strafford, and thereby made the 
king cut off his right hand to save his left, and yet not save it 



THE KING SUBMITS TO THEIR TERMS. 121 

neither. They obtained another bill, to empower them to sit 
during their own pleasure, and after them, triennial parlia- 
ments, to meet whether the king call them or no ; and 
granting this completed his majesty's ruin. 

Had the house only regulated the abuses of the court, 
punished evil counsellors, and restored parliaments to their 
original and just powers, all had been well ; and the king 
though he had been more than mortified, had yet reaped the 
benefit of future peace ; for now the Scots were sent home, 
after having eaten up two counties, and received a prodigious 
sum of money to boot. And the king, though too late, goes 
in person to Edinburgh, and grants them all they could desire, 
and more than they asked ; but in England, the desires of ours 
were unbounded, and drove at all extremes. 

They threw out the bishops from sitting in the house, make 
a protestation equivalent to the Scotch covenant ; and this 
done, print their remonstrance. This so provoked the king, 
that he resolves upon seizing some of the members, and, in 
an ill hour, enters the house in person to take them. Thus 
one imprudent thing on one hand produced another of the 
other hand, until the king was obliged to leave them to them- 
selves, for fear of being mobbed into something or other 
unworthy of himself. 

These proceedings began to alarm the gentry and nobility 
of England ; for, however willing we were to have evil 
counsellors removed, and the government return to a settled 
and legal course, according to the happy constitution of this 
nation, and might have been forward enough to have owned 
the king had been misled, and imposed upon to do things 
which he had rather had not been done ; yet it did not follow, 
that all the powers and prerogatives of the crown should 
devolve upon the parliament, and the king in a manner be 
deposed, or else sacrificed to the fury of the rabble. 

The heats of the house running them thus to all extremes, 
and at last to take from the king the power of the militia, 
which indeed was all that was left to make him anything of 
a king, put the king upon opposing force with force ; and 
thus the flame of civil war began. 

However backward I was in engaging in the second year's 
expedition against the Scots, I was as forward now ; for I 
waited on the king at York, where a gallant company of 
gentlemen as ever were seen in England, engaged themselves 



122 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

to enter into his service ; and here some of us formed ourselves 
into troops for the guard of his person. 

The king having been waited upon by the gentry of York- 
shire, and having told them his resolution of erecting his 
royal standard, and received from them hearty assurances of 
support, dismisses them, and marches to Hull, where lay the 
train of artillery, and all the arms and ammunition belonging 
to the northern army, which had been disbanded. But here 
the parliament had been beforehand with his majesty, so that 
when he came to Hull, he found the gates shut, and Sir John 
Hotham, the governor, upon the walls, though with a great 
deal of seeming humility and protestations of loyalty to his 
person, yet with a positive denial to admit any of the king's 
attendants into the town. If his majesty pleased to enter the 
town in person with any reasonable number of his household, 
he would submit, but would not be prevailed on to receive 
the king, as he would be received, with his force, though those 
forces were then but very few. 

The king was exceedingly provoked at this repulse, and 
indeed it was a great surprise to us all ; for certainly never 
prince began a war against the whole strength of his kingdom 
under the circumstances that he was in. He had not a 
garrison, or a company of soldiers in his pay ; not a stand of 
arms, or a barrel of powder, a musket, cannon, or mortar ; 
not a ship of all the fleet, or money in his treasury to procure 
them ; whereas the parliament had all his navy, and ordnance, 
stores, magazines, arms, ammunition, and revenue, in their 
keeping. And this I take to be another defect of the king's 
counsel, and a sad instance of the distraction of his affairs ; 
that when he saw how all things were going to wreck, as it 
was impossible but he should see it, and it is plain he did see 
it, that he should not, long enough before it came to extre- 
mities, secure the navy, magazines, and stores of war, in the 
hands of his trusty servants, that would have been sure to 
have preserved them for his use, at a time when he wanted them. 

It cannot be supposed but the gentry of England, who 
generally preserved their loyalty for their royal master, and 
at last heartily showed it, were exceedingly discouraged at 
first, when they saw the parliament had all the means of 
making war in their own hands, and the king was naked 
and destitute either of arms or ammunition, or money to pro- 
cure them. 



THE QUEEN JOINS THE KING-'s FORCES. 123 

Not but that the king, by extraordinary application, 
recovered the disorder the want of these things had thrown 
him into, and supplied himself with all things needful. 

But my observation was this, had his majesty had the 
magazines, navy, and forts in his own hand, the gentry, who 
wanted but the prospect of something to encourage them, had 
come in at first, and the parliament being unprovided, would 
have been presently reduced to reason. 

But this was it that baulked the gentry of Yorkshire, who 
went home again, giving the king good promises, but never 
appeared for him, till by raising a good army in Shropshire 
and Wales, he marched towards London, and they saw there 
was a prospect of their being supported. 

In this condition the king erected his standard at Notting- 
ham, August 2nd, 1642, and, I confess, I had very melancholy 
apprehensions of the king's affairs ; for the appearance to 
the royal standard was but small. The affront the king had 
met with at Hull had baulked and dispirited the northern 
gentry, and the king's affairs looked with a very dismal 
aspect. We had expresses from London of the prodigious 
success of the parliament's levies, how their men came in 
faster than they could entertain them, and that arms were 
delivered out to whole companies listed together, and the like : 
and all this while the king had not got together a thousand 
foot, and had no arms for them neither. When the king saw 
this, he immediately despatches five several messengers, 
whereof one went to the Marquis of Worcester into Wales ; 
one went to the queen, then at Windsor ; one to the Duke of 
Newcastle, then Marquis of Newcastle, into the north ; one 
into Scotland, and one into France, where the queen soon 
after arrived, to raise money, and buy arms, and to get what 
assistance she could among her own friends : nor was her 
majesty idle, for she sent over several ships laden with arms, 
and ammunition, with a fine train of artillery, and a great 
many very good officers ; and though one of the first fell into 
the hands of the parliament, with three hundred barrels of 
powder and some arms, and a hundred and fifty gentlemen, 
yet most of the gentlemen found means, one way or other to 
get to us, and most of the ships the queen freighted arrived; 
and at last her majesty came herself, and brought an extra- 
ordinary supply, both of men, money, arms, &c, with which 
she joined the king's forces under the Earl of Newcastle in 



124 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

the north. Finding his majesty thus bestirring himself to 
muster his friends together, I asked him, if he thought it 
might not be for his majesty's service to let me go among my 
friends, and his loyal subjects about Shrewsbury? Yes, says 
the king, smiling, I intend you shall, and I design to go with 
you myself. I did not understand what the king meant 
then, and did not think it good manners to inquire ; but the 
next day I found all things disposed for a march, and the king 
on horseback by eight of the clock ; when calling me to him, 
he told me I should go before, and let my father and all my 
friends know he would be at Shrewsbury the Saturday follow- 
ing. 1 left my equipages, and taking post with only one 
servant, was at my father's the next morning by break of 
day. My father was not surprised at the news of the king's 
coming at all ; for, it seems he, together with the loyal gentry 
of those parts, had sent particularly to give the king an invi- 
tation to move that way, which I was not made privy to ; 
with an account what encouragemeut they had there in the 
endeavours made for his interest. In short, the whole coun- 
try was entirely for the king ; and such was the universal joy 
the people showed when the news of his majesty's coming 
down was positively known, that all manner of business was 
laid aside, and the whole body of the people seemed to be 
resolved upon the war. 

As this gave a new face to the king's affairs, so I must 
own it filled me with joy ; for I was astonished before, when 
I considered what the king and his friends were like to be 
exposed to. The news of the proceedings of the parliament, 
and their powerful preparations, were now no more terrible ; 
the king came at the time appointed, and having lain at my 
father's house one night, entered Shrewsbury in the morning. 
The acclamations of the people, the concourse of the nobility 
and gentry about his person, and the crowds which now came 
every day into his standard, were incredible. 

The loyalty of the English gentry was not only worth 
notice, but the power of the gentry is extraordinarily visible 
in this matter. The king, in about six week's time, which 
was the most of his stay at Shrewsbury, was supplied with 
money, arms, ammunition, and a train of artillery, and listed 
a body of an army upwards of twenty thousand men. 

His majesty seeing the general alacrity of his people, 
immediately issued out commissions, and formed regiments of 



LOYALTY OF THE ENGLISH GENTRY. 125 

horse and foot ; and having some experienced officers about 
him, together with about sixteen who came from France, 
with a ship loaded with arms and some field-pieces, which 
came very seasonably into the Severn, the men were exer- 
cised, regularly disciplined, and quartered, and now we began 
to look like soldiers. My father had raised a regiment of 
horse at his own charge, and completed them, and the king 
gave out arms to them from the supplies which I mentioned 
came from abroad. Another party of horse, all brave, stout 
fellows, and well mounted, came in from Lancashire, and the 
Earl of Derby at the head of them. The Welchmen came 
in by droves ; and so great was the concourse of people, that 
the king began to think of marching, and gave the command, 
as well as the trust of regulating the army, to the brave Earl 
of Lindsey, as general of the foot; the parliament general 
being the Earl of Essex ; two braver men, or two better 
officers, were not in the kingdom ; they had both been old 
soldiers, and had served together as volunteers in the Low 
Country wars, under Prince Maurice. They had been com- 
rades and companions abroad, and now came to face one 
another as enemies in the field. 

Such was the expedition used by the king and his friends, 
in the levies of this first army, that, notwithstanding the 
wonderful expedition the parliament made, the king was in 
the field before them ; and now the gentry in other parts of 
the nation bestirred themselves, and seized upon and gar- 
risoned several considerable places for the king. In the north, 
the Earl of Newcastle not only garrisoned the most consider- 
able places, but even the general possession of the north was 
for the king, excepting Hull and some few places, which the 
old Lord Fairfax had taken up for the parliament. On the 
other hand, entire Cornwall, and most of the western counties, 
were the king's. The parliament had their chief interest in 
the south and eastern part of England ; as Kent, Surrey, and 
Sussex, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, Bedford, Hun- 
tingdon, Hertford, Buckinghamshire, and the other midland 
counties. These were called, or some of them at least, the 
associated counties, and felt little of the war, other than the 
charges ; but the main support of the parliament was the city 
of London. The king made the seat of his court at Oxford, 
which he caused to be regularly fortified. The Lord Say had 
been here, and had possession of the city for the enemy, 



126 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

and was debating about fortifying it, but came to no resolu- 
tion, which was a very great oversight in them ; the situation 
of the place, and the importance of it, on many accounts, to 
the city of London, considered ; and they would have retrieved 
this error afterwards, but then it was too late ; for the king 
made it the head-quarters, and received great supplies and 
assistance from the wealth of the colleges, and the plenty of 
the neighbouring country. Abingdon, Wallingford, Basing, 
and Reading, were all garrisoned and fortified as outworks, 
to defend this as the centre. And thus all England became 
the theatre of blood, and war was spread into every corner 
of the country, though as yet there was no stroke struck. I 
had no command in this army ; my father led his own regi- 
ment; and, as old as he was, would not leave his royal master ; 
and my elder brother stayed at home to support the family. 
As for me, I rode a volunteer in the royal troop of guards, 
which may very well deserve the title of a royal troop ; for 
it was composed of young gentlemen, sons of the nobility, 
and some of the prime gentry of the nation, and I think not 
a person of so mean a birth or fortune as myself. We 
reckoned in this troop two-and-thirty lords, or who came 
afterwards to be such : and eight-and-thirty of younger sons 
of the nobility, five French noblemen, and all the rest gentle- 
men of very good families and estates. 

And that I may give the due to their personal valour, many 
of this troop lived afterwards to have regiments and troops 
under their command, in the service of the king ; many of 
them lost their lives for him, and most of them their estates : 
nor did they behave unworthy of themselves in their first 
showing their faces to the enemy, as shall be mentioned in its 
place. 

While the king remained at Shrewsbury, his loyal friends 
bestirred themselves in several parts of the kingdom. 
Goring had secured Portsmouth ; but being young in matters 
of war, and not in time relieved, though the Marquis of 
Hertford was marching to relieve him, yet he was obliged to 
quit the place, and shipped himself for Holland, from whence 
he returned with relief for the king, and afterwards did very 
good service upon all occasions, and so effectually cleared 
himself of the scandal the hasty surrender of Portsmouth had 
brought upon his courage. 

The chief power of the king's forces lay in three places, in 



POSITION OF THE TROOPS. 129 

Cornwall, in Yorkshire, and at Shrewsbury. In Cornw?„i.<r 
Sir Ralph Hopton, afterwards Lord Hopton, Sir Bevil Grany.il, 
and Sir Nicholas Slamming, secured all the country, and 
afterwards spread themselves over Devonshire and Somerset- 
shire, took Exeter from the parliament, fortified Bridgewater 
and Barnstable, and beat Sir William Waller at the battle of 
Roundway Down, as I shall toucn at more particularly, when 
I come to recite the part of my own travels that way. 

In the north, the Marquis of Newcastle secured all the 
country, garrisoned York, Scarborough, Carlisle, Newcastle, 
Pomfret, Leeds, and all the considerable places, and took the 
field with a very good army, though afterwards he proved 
more unsuccessful than the rest, having the whole power ot 
a kingdom at his back, the Scots coming in with an army to 
the assistance of the parliament; which indeed was the 
general turn of the scale of the war ; for, had it not been for 
the Scots' army, the king had most certainly reduced the 
parliament, at least to good terms of peace, in two years' time. 

The king was the third article : his force at Shrewsbury I 
have noted already ; the alacrity of the gentry filled him with 
hopes, and all his army with vigour, and the 8th of October, 
1642, his majesty gave orders to march. The Earl of Essex 
had spent above a month after his leaving London (for he went 
thence the 9th of September) in modelling and drawing 
together his forces ; his rendezvous was at St. Albans, from 
whence he marched to Northampton, Coventry, and Warwick, 
and leaving garrisons in them, he comes on to Worcester. 
Being thus advanced, he possesses Oxford, as I noted before, 
Banbury, Bristol, Gloucester, and Worcester, out of all which 
places, except Gloucester, we drove him back to London in 
a very little while. 

* Sir John Biron had raised a very good party of five hundred 
horse, most gentlemen, for the king, and had possessed Oxford; 
but on the approach of Lord Say quitted it, being now but an 
open town, and retreated to Worcester ; from whence, on the 
approach of Essex's army, he retreated to the king. And now 
all things grew ripe for action, both parties having secured 
their posts, and settled their schemes of the war, taken their 
posts and places as their measures and opportunities directed, 
the field was next in their eye, and the soldiers began to 
inquire when they should fight ; for as yet there had been 
little or no blood drawn, and it was not long before they had 



126 ; MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER, 

ai) nough. of it ; for I believe I may challenge all the historians 
tin Europe to tell me of any war in the world where, in the 
space of four years, there were so many pitched battles, sieges, 
fights, and skirmishes, as in this war ; we never encamped or 
intrenched, never fortified the avenues to our posts, or lay 
fenced with rivers and defiles ; here was no leaguers in the 
field, as at the story of Nuremberg, neither had our soldiers 
any tents, or what they call heavy baggage. It was the 
general maxim of this war, Where is the enemy ? let us go 
and fight them : or, on the other hand, if the enemy was 
coming, What was to be done ? why, what should be done ? 
draw out into the fields, and fight them. I cannot say it was 
the prudence of the parties, and had the king fought less he 
had gained more ; and I shall remark several times, when the 
eagerness of fighting was the worst council, and proved our 
loss. This benefit however happened in general to the country, 
that it made a quick, though a bloody end, of the war, which 
otherwise had lasted till it might have ruined the whole nation. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE ROYAL ARMY TAKES THE FIELD ACTION WITH THE 

REBELS UNDER ESSEX BATTLE OF EDGEHILL THE PAR- 
LIAMENT CLAIMS THE VICTORY THEY VOTE AN ADDRESS 

FOR PEACE SAD REFLECTION? ON THE MISERIES OP 

CIVIL WAR. 

On the 10th of October the king's army was in full march, 
his majesty generalissimo, the Earl of Lindsey, general of the 
foot, Prince Rupert, general of the horse ; and the first action 
in the field was by Prince Rupert and Sir John Biron. Sir 
John had brought his body of five hundred horse, as I noted 
already, from Oxford to Worcester ; the Lord Say, with a 
strong party, being in the neighbourhood of Oxford, and 
expected in the town ; Colonel Sandys, a hot man, and who 
had more courage than judgment, advances with about fifteen 
hundred horse and dragoons, with design to beat Sir John 
Biron out of Worcester, and take post there for the parliament. 
The king had notice that the Earl of Essex designed for 
Worcester, and Prince Rupert was ordered to advance with 



ACTION WITH THE REBELS UNDER ESSEX. 129 

a body of horse and dragoons, to face the enemy, and bring 
ofi Sir John Biron. This his majesty did to amuse the Earl 
of Essex, that he might expect him that way ; whereas the 
king's design was to get between the Earl of Essex's army 
and the city of London ; and his majesty's end was doubly 
answered ; for he not only drew Essex on to Worcester, where 
he spent more time than he needed, but he beat the party into 
the bargain. 

I went volunteer in this party, and rid in my father's 
regiment ; for though we really expected not to see the 
enemy, yet I was tired with lying still. We came to 
Worcester just as notice was brought to Sir John Biron 
that a party of the enemy was on their march for Worcester, 
upon which the prince, immediately consulting what was to 
be done, resolves to march the next morning, and fight them. 

The enemy, who lay at Pershore, about eight miles from 
Worcester, and, as I believe, had no notice of our march, 
came on very confidently in the morning, and found us 
fairly drawn up to receive them ; I must confess this was 
the bluntest downright way of making war that ever was 
seen. The enemy, who, in all the little knowledge I had of 
war, ought to have discovered our numbers, and guessed by 
our posture what our design was, might easily have informed 
themselves that we intended to attack them, and so might 
have secured the advantage of a bridge in their front ; but, 
without any regard to these methods of policy, they came on 
at all hazards. Upon this notice, my father proposed to the 
prince to halt for them, and suffer ourselves to be attacked, 
since we found them willing to give us the advantage ; the 
prince approved of the advice, so we halted within view of 
a bridge, leaving space enough on our front for about half 
the number of their forces to pass and draw up ; and at the 
bridge was posted about fifty dragoons, with orders to retire 
as soon as the enemy advanced, as if they had been afraid. 
On the right of the road was a ditch, and a very high bank 
behind, where we had placed three hundred dragoons, with 
orders to lie flat on their faces till the enemy had passed the 
bridge, and to let fly among them as soon as our trumpets 
sounded a charge. Nobody but Colonel Sandys would have 
been caught in such a snare ; for he might easily have seen 
that, when he was over the bridge, there was not room 
enough for him to fight in ; but " The JiOrd of Hosts" was 

VOL. II. K 



130 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

so much in their mouths, for that was the word for that day, 
that they took little heed how to conduct the host of the 
Lord to their own advantage. 

As we expected, they appeared, beat our dragoons from 
the bridge, and passed it ; we stood firm in one line with a 
reserve, and expected a charge; but Colonel Sandys, showing 
a great deal more judgment than we thought he was master 
of, extends himself to the left, finding the ground too straight, 
and began to form his men with a great deal of readiness 
and skill ; for by this time he saw our number was greater 
than he expected ; the prince perceiving it, and foreseeing that 
the stratagem of the dragoons would be frustrated by this, 
immediately charges with the horse, and the dragoons at the 
same time standing upon their feet, poured in their shot upon 
those that were passing the bridge ; this surprise put them 
into such disorder that we had but little work with them ; 
for though Colonel Sandys, with the troops next him, sus- 
tained the shock very well, and behaved themselves gallantly 
enough, yet, the confusion beginning in their rear, those that 
had not yet passed the bridge were kept back by the fire of 
the dragoons, and the rest were easily cut in pieces. Colonel 
Sandys was mortally wounded and taken prisoner, and the 
crowd was so great to get back, that many pushed into the 
water, and were rather smothered than drowned. Some of 
them who never came into the fight were so frightened that 
they never looked behind them, till they came to Pershore ; 
and, as we were afterwards informed, the life-guards of the 
general who had quartered in the town, left it in disorder 
enough, expecting us at the heels of their men. 

If our business had been to keep the parliament army 
from coming to Worcester, we had a very good opportunity 
to have secured the bridge at Pershore ; but our design lay 
another way, as I have said, and the king was for drawing 
Essex on to the Severn, in hopes to get behind him, which 
fell out accordingly. 

Essex, spurred by this affront in the infancy of their 
affairs, advances the next day, and came to Pershore time 
enough to be at the funeral of some of his men ; and from 
thence he advances to Worcester. 

We marched back to Worcester extremely pleased with 
the good success of our first attack ; and our men were so 
flashed with this little victory, that it put vigour into the 






THE KING CALLS A COUNCIL OF WAR. 131 

whole army. The enemy lost about three thousand men, 
and we carried away near one hundred and fifty prisoners, 
with five hundred horses, some standards and arms, and, 
among the prisoners, their colonel, but he died a little after 
of his wounds. 

Upon the approach of the enemy, Worcester was quitted, 
and the forces marched back to join the king's army, which 
lay then at Bridgenorth, Ludlow, and thereabout. As the 
king expected, it fell out ; Essex found so much work at 
Worcester to settle parliament quarters, and secure Bristol, 
Gloucester, and Hereford, that it gave the king a full day's 
march of him ; so the king, having the start of him, moves 
towards London; and Essex, nettled to be both beaten in 
fight, and outdone in conduct, decamps, and follows the king. 

The parliament, and the Londoners too, were in a strange 
consternation at this mistake of their general; and had the 
king, whose great misfortune was always to follow precipi- 
tant advices, — had the king, I say, pushed on his first design, 
which he had formed with very good reason, and for which 
he had been dodging with Essex eight or ten days, viz., of 
marching directly to London, where he had a very great 
interest, and where his friends were not yet oppressed and 
impoverished, as they were afterwards, he had turned the 
scale of his affairs ; and every man expected it ; for the 
members began to shift for themselves, expresses were sent 
on the heels of one another to the Earl of Essex, to hasten 
after the king, and, if possible, to bring him to a battle. 
Some of these letters fell into our hands, and we might 
easily discover that the parliament were in the last confusion 
at the thoughts of our coming to London ; besides this, the 
city was in a worse fright than the house, and the great 
moving men began to go out of town. In short, they 
expected us, and we expected to come ; but providence, for 
our ruin, had otherwise determined it. 

Essex, upon news of the king's march, and upon receipt 
of the parliament's letters, makes long marches after us, and 
on the 23rd of October reaches the village of Keynton, in 
Warwickshire. The king was almost as far as Banbury, 
and there calls a council of war. Some of the old officers 
that foresaw the advantage the king had, the concern the 
city was in, and the vast addition, both to the reputation of 
his forces and the increase of his interest, it would be, if the 

k 2 



132 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

king could gain that point, urged the king to march on to 
London. Prince Rupert, and the fresh colonels, pressed for 
fighting ; told the king it dispirited their men to march with 
the enemy at their heels ; that the parliament army was 
inferior to him by six thousand men, and fatigued with 
hasty marching ; that, as their orders were to fight, he had 
nothing to do but to post himself to advantage, and receive 
them to their destruction ; that the action near Worcester 
had let them know how easy it was to deal with a rash 
enemy ; and that it was a dishonour for him, whose forces 
w^ere so much superior, to be pursued by his subjects in 
rebellion. These and the like arguments prevailed with the 
king to alter his wiser measures, and resolve to fight. Nor 
was this all ; when a resolution of fighting was taken, that 
part of the advice which they who were for fighting gave as 
a reason for their opinion was forgot, and, instead of halting, 
and posting ourselves to advantage till the enemy came up, 
we were ordered to march back and meet them. 

Nay, so eager was the prince for fighting, that when from the 
top of Edgehill, the enemy's army was descried in the bottom 
between them and the village of Keynton, and that the enemy 
had bid us defiance, by discharging three cannons, we accepted 
the challenge, and answering with two shots from our army, 
we must needs forsake the advantage of the hills, which they 
must have mounted under the command of our cannon, and 
march down to them into the plain. I confess, I thought 
here was a great deal more gallantry than discretion ; for it 
was plainly taking an advantage out of our own hands, and 
putting it into the hands of the enemy. An enemy that 
must fight, may always be fought with to advantage. My old 
hero, the glorious G-ustavus Adolphus, was as forward to 
fight as any man of true valour, mixt with any policy, need 
to be, or ought to be ; but he used to say, an enemy, reduced 
to a necessity of fighting, is half beaten. 

It is true, we were all but young in the war ; the soldiers 
hot and forward, and eagerly desired to come to hands with 
the enemy. But I take the more notice of it here, because 
the king in this acted against his own measures ; for it was 
the king himself had laid the design of getting the start of 
Essex, and marching to London. His friends had invited 
him thither, and expected him, and suffered deeply for the 
omission ; and yet he gave way to these hasty counsels, and 






ERROR IN DEPLOYMENT OP THE KING'S ARMY. 133 

suffered his judgment to be overruled by majority of voices; 
an error, I say, the King of Sweden was never guilty of; for 
if all the officers at a council of war were of a different opi- 
nion, yet, unless their reasons mastered his judgment, their 
votes never altered his measures ; but this was the error of 
our good, but unfortunate master, three times in this war, 
and particularly in two of the greatest battles of the time, 
viz., this of Edgehill, and that of Naseby. 

The resolution for fighting being published in the army, 
gave an universal joy to the soldiers, who expressed an extra- 
ordinary ardour for fighting. I remember, my father talk- 
ing with me about it, asked me what I thought of the ap- 
proaching battle ; I told him, I thought the king had done 
very well ; for at that time I did not consult the extent of 
the design, and had a mighty mind, like other rash people, to 
see it brought to a day, which made me answer my father as 
I did. But, said I, sir, I doubt there will be but indifferent 
doings on both sides, between two armies both made up of 
fresh men, that had never seen any service. My fathei 
minded little what I spoke of that; but, when I seemed 
pleased that the king had resolved to fight, he looked angrily 
at me, and told me he was sorry I could see no farther into 
things. I tell you, says he, hastily, if the king should kill 
and take prisoners this whole army, general and all, the par- 
liament will have the victory; for we have lost more by 
slipping this opportunity of getting into London, than we 
shall ever get by ten battles. I saw enough of this after- 
wards to convince me of the weight of what my father 
said, and so did the king too ; but it was then too late ; ad- 
vantages slipt in war are never recovered. 

We were now in a full march to fight the Earl of Essex. It 
was on Sunday morning the 24th of October, 1642, fair 
weather over head, but the ground very heavy and dirty. As 
soon as we came to the top of Edgehill, we discovered their 
whole army. They were not drawn up, having had two 
miles to march that morning; but they were very busy form- 
ing their lines, and posting the regiments as they came up. 
Some of their horse were exceedingly fatigued, having 
marched forty-eight hours together ; and had they been 
suffered to follow us three or four days' march farther, several 
of their regiments of horse would have been quite ruined, 



134 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

and their foot would have been rendered unserviceable for 
the present. But we had no patience. 

As soon as our whole army was come to the top of the 
hill, we were drawn up in order of battle ; the king's army- 
made a very fine appearance ; and indeed they were a body 
of gallant men as ever appeared in the field, and as well fur- 
nished at all points; the horse exceeding well accoutred, 
being most of them gentlemen and volunteers ; some whole 
regiments serving without pay. Their horses very good and 
fit for service as could be desired. The whole army were 
not above eighteen thousand men, and the enemy not one 
thousand over or under, though we had been told they were 
not above twelve thousand; but they had been reinforced 
with four thousand men from Northampton. 

The king was with the general, the Earl of Lindsey, in the 
main battle ; Prince Rupert commanded the right wing, and 
the Marquis of Hertford, the Lord Willoughby, and several 
other very good officers, the left. 

The signal of battle being given with two cannon shot, we 
marched in order of battalia down the- hill, being drawn up 
in two lines, with bodies of reserve ; the enemy advanced to 
meet us much in the same form, with this difference only, 
that they had placed their cannon on their right, and the 
king had placed ours in the centre, before, or rather be- 
tween two great brigades of foot. Their cannon began with 
us first, and did some mischief among the dragoons of our 
left wing ; but our officers perceiving the shot took the men 
and missed the horses, ordered all to alight, and every man 
leading his horse, to advance in the same order ; and this 
saved our men, for most of the enemy's shot flew over their 
heads. Our cannon made a terrible execution upon their 
foot for a quarter of an hour, and put them into great con- 
fusion, till the general obliged them to halt, and changed the 
posture of his front, marching round a small rising ground, 
by which he avoided the fury of our artillery. 

By this time the wings were engaged, the king having 
given the signal of battle, and ordered the right wing to fall 
on. Prince Rupert, who, as is said, commanded that wing, 
fell on with such fury, and pushed the left wing of the par- 
liament army so effectually, that in a moment he filled all 
with terror and confusion. Commissary-general Ramsey, a 



BATTLE OF EDGEHILL. 135 

Scotchman, a Low Country soldier, and an experienced 
officer, commanded their left wing; and though he did all 
that an expert soldier and a brave commander could do, yet it 
was to no purpose ; his lines were immediately broken, and 
all overwhelmed in a trice : two regiments of foot, whether 
as part of the left wing, or on the left of the main body, I 
know not, were disordered by their own horse, and rather 
trampled to death by the horses, than beaten by our men ; 
but they were so entirely broken and disordered, that I do 
not remember that ever they made one volley upon our men ; 
for their own horse running away, and falling foul on these 
foot, were so vigorously followed by our men, that the foot 
never had a moment to rally or look behind them. The point 
of the left wing of horse were not so soon broken as the rest, 
and three regiments of them stood firm for some time : the 
dexterous officers of the other regiments taking the oppor- 
tunity, rallied a great many of their scattered men behind 
them, and pieced in some troops with those regiments ; but 
after two or three charges, which a brigade of our second 
line, following the prince, made upon them, they also were 
broken with the rest. 

I remember, that at the great battle of Leipsic, the right 
wing of the imperialists having fallen in upon the Saxons 
with like fury to this, bore down all before them, and beat 
the Saxons quite out of the field ; upon which the soldiers 
cried, Victoria ! Let us follow ! No, no, said the old general 
Tilly, let them go, but let us beat the Swedes too, and then 
all's our own. Had Prince Rupert taken this method, and 
instead of following the fugitives, who were dispersed so 
effectually, that two regiments would have secured them from 
rallying ; I say, had he fallen in upon the foot, or wheeled to 
the left, and fallen in upon the rear of the enemy's right wing 
of horse, or returned to the assistance of the left wing of our 
horse, we had gained the most absolute and complete victory 
that could be ; nor had one thousand men of the enemy's 
army got off: but this prince, who was full of fire, and pleased 
to see the rout of the enemy, pursued them quite to the town 
of Keynton, where indeed he killed abundance of their men, 
and some time also was lost in plundering the baggage : but 
in the mean time, the glory and advantage of the day was 
lost to the king ; for the right wing of the parliament horse 
could not be so broken. Sir William Balfour made a despe- 



136 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

rate charge upon the point of the king's left ; and had it not 
been for two regiments of dragoons, who were planted in the 
reserve, had routed the whole wing; for he broke through 
the first line, and staggered the second, who advanced to their 
assistance, but was so warmly received by those dragoons, 
who came seasonably in, and gave their first fire on horseback, 
that his fury was checked, and having lost a great many men, 
was forced to wheel about to his own men ; and had the king 
had but three regiments of horse at hand, to have charged 
him, he had been routed. The rest of this wing kept their 
ground, and received the first fury of the enemy with great 
firmness ; after which, advancing in their turn, they were 
once masters of the Earl of Essex's cannon. And here we 
lost another advantage : for if any foot had been at hand to 
support these horse, they had carried off the cannon, or turned 
it upon the main battle of the enemy's foot ; but the foot were 
otherwise engaged. The horse on this side fought with great 
obstinacy and variety of success a great while, Sir Philip 
Stapylton, who commanded the guards of the Earl of Essex, 
being engaged with a party of our Shrewsbury cavaliers, as 
we called them, was once in a fair way to have been cut off 
by a brigade of our foot, who, being advanced to fall on upon 
the parliament's main body, flanked Sir Philip's horse in their 
way, and, facing to the left, so furiously charged him with 
their pikes, that he was obliged to retire in great disorder, 
and with the loss of a great many men and horses. 

All this while the foot on both sides were desperately en- 
gaged, and coming close up to the teeth of one another with 
the clubbed musket and push of pike, fought with great 
resolution, and a terrible slaughter on both sides, giving no 
quarter for a great while ; and they continued to do thus, till, 
as if they were tired, and out of wind, either party seemed 
willing enough to leave off, and take breath. Those which 
suffered most were that brigade which had charged Sir William 
Stapylton's horse, who, being bravely engaged in the front 
with the enemy's foot, were, on a sudden, charged again in 
front and flank, by Sir William Balfour's horse, and disordered, 
after a very desperate defence. Here the king's standard was 
taken, the standard-bearer, Sir Edward Varney, being killed ; 
but it was rescued again by Captain Smith, and brought to the 
king the same night, for which the king knighted the captain. 

This brigade of foot had fought all the day, and had not 



THE PARLIAMENT CLAIMS THE VICTORY. 137 

been broken at last, if any horse had been at hand to support 
them. The field began to be now clear, both armies stood, 
as it were, gazing at one another, only the king, having 
rallied his foot, seemed inclined to renew the charge, and 
began to cannonade them, which they could not return, most 
of their cannon being nailed while they were in our possession, 
and all the cannoneers killed or fled, and our gunners did 
execution upon Sir William Balfour's troops for a good while. 
My father's regiment being in the right with the prince, I 
saw little of the fight, but the rout of the enemy's left, and 
we had as full a victory there as we could desire, but spent 
too much time in it. We killed about two thousand men in 
that part of the action, and having totally dispersed them, 
and plundered their baggage, began to think of our fellows 
when it was too late to help them. We returned however 
victorious to the king, just as the battle was over ; the king 
asked the prince what news ? He told him he could give his 
majesty a good account of the enemy's horse : Ay, by G — d, 
says a gentleman that stood by me, and of their carts too. 
That word was spoken with such a sense of their misfortune, 
and made such an impression in the whole army, that it 
occasioned some ill blood afterwards among us ; and, but that 
the king took up the business, it had been of ill consequence ; 
for some person who had heard the gentleman speak it, in- 
formed the prince who it was, and the prince resenting it, 
spoke something about it in the hearing of the party when 
the king was present. The gentleman not at all surprised, 
told his highness openly, he had said the words ; and though 
he owned he had no disrespect for his highness, yet he could 
not but say, if it had not been so, the enemy's army had been 
better beaten. The prince replied something very disobliging ; 
upon which the gentleman came up to the king, and kneeling, 
humbly besought his majesty to accept of his commission, and 
to give him leave to tell the prince, that, whenever his high- 
ness pleased, he was ready to give him satisfaction. The 
prince was exceedingly provoked, and, as he was very pas- 
sionate, began to talk very oddly, and without all government 
of himself. The gentleman, as bold as he, but much calmer, 
preserved his temper, but maintained his quarrel ; and the 
king was so concerned, that he was very much out of humour 
with the prince about it. However, his majesty, upon con- 
sideration, soon ended the dispute, by laying his commands 



138 MEMOIES OF A CAVALIER. 

on them both to speak no more of it for that day ; and refus- 
ing the commission from the colonel, for he was no less, sent 
for them both next morning in private, and made them friends 
again. 

But to return to our story ; we came back to the king 
timely enough to put the Earl of Essex's men out of all 
humour of renewing the fight; and, as I observed before, 
both parties stood gazing at one another, and our cannon 
playing upon them, obliged Sir William Balfour's horse to 
wheel off in some disorder, but they returned us none again ; 
which, as we afterwards understood, was, as I said before, 
for want of both powder and gunners ; for the cannoneers and 
firemen were killed, or had quitted their train in the fight, 
when our horse had possession of their artillery ; and as they 
had spiked up some of the cannon, so they had carried away 
fifteen carriages of powder. 

Night coming on, ended all discourse of more fighting ; 
and the king drew off and marched towards the hills. I 
know no other token of victory which the enemy had, than 
their lying in the field of battle all night, which they did for 
no other reason, than that, having lost their baggage and 
provisions, they had no where to go ; and which we did not, 
because we had good quarters at hand. 

The number of prisoners and of the slain, were not very 
unequal; the enemy lost more men, we most of quality. 
Six thousand men on both sides were killed on the spot, 
whereof, when our rolls were examined, we missed two 
thousand five hundred. We lost our brave general the old 
Earl of Lindsey, who was wounded and taken prisoner, and 
died of his wounds ; Sir Edward Stradling, Colonel Lunds- 
ford, prisoners ; and Sir Edward Varney, and a great many 
gentlemen of quality, slain. On the other hand, we carried 
off Colonel Essex, Colonel Ramsey, and the Lord St. John, 
who also died of his wounds ; we took five ammunition 
waggons full of powder, and brought off about five hundred 
horse in the defeat of the left wing, with eighteen standards 
and colours, and lost seventeen. 

The slaughter of the left wing was so great, and the flight 
so effectual, that several of the officers rid clear away, coasting 
round, and got to London, where they reported, that the parlia- 
ment army was entirely defeated, all lost, killed, or taken, as 
if none but them were left alive to carry the news. This 



ANOTHER ATTACK ANTICIPATED. 139 

filled them with consternation for a while, but when other 
messengers followed all was restored to quiet again, and the 
parliament cried up their victory, and sufficiently mocked 
God and their general, with their public thanks for it. 
Truly, as the fight was a deliverance to them, they were in 
the right to give thanks for it ; but as to its being a victory, 
neither side had much to boast of, and they less a great deal 
than we bad. 

I got no hurt in this fight ; and indeed we of the right 
wing had but little fighting ; I think I discharged my pistols 
but once and my carabin twice, for we had more fatigue than 
fight ; the enemy fled, and we had little to do but to follow, 
and kill those we could overtake. I spoiled a good horse, 
and got a better from the enemy, in his room, and came home 
weary enough. My father lost his horse, and, in the fall, 
was bruised in his thigh by another horse treading on him, 
which disabled him for some time, and, at his request, 
by his majesty's consent, I commanded the regiment in his 
absence. 

The enemy received a recruit of four thousand men the 
next morning; if they had not, I believe they had gone 
back towards Worcester ; but, encouraged by that reinforce- 
ment, they called a council of war, and had a long debate 
whether they could attack us again ; but, notwithstanding 
their great victory, they durst not attempt it, though this 
addition of strength made them superior to us by three 
thousand men. 

The king indeed expected, that when these troops joined 
them they would advance, and we were preparing to receive 
them at a village called Arno, where the head-quarter 
continued three or four days ; and, had they really esteemed 
the first day's work a victory, as they called it, they would 
have done it, but they thought not good to venture, but 
marched away to Warwick, and from thence to Coventry. 
The king, to urge them to venture upon him, and come to a 
second battle, sits down before Banbury, and takes both 
town and castle, and makes two entire regiments of foot, and 
one troop of horse, quit the parliament service, and take up 
their arms for the king. This was done almost before their 
faces, which was a better proof of a victory on our side, than 
they could pretend to. From Banbury we marched to 
Oxford ; and now all men saw the parliament had made a 



140 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

great mistake, for they were not always in the right any 
more than we, to leave Oxford without a garrison. The king 
caused new regular works to be drawn round it, and seven 
royal bastions, with ravelins and outworks, a double ditch, 
counterscarp, and covered way ; all which, added to the 
advantage of its situation, made it a formidable place, and 
from this time it became our place of arms, and the centre 
of affairs on the king's side. 

If the parliament had the honour of the field, the king 
reaped the fruits of the victory ; for all this part of the 
country submitted to him. Essex's army made the best of 
their way to London, and were but in an ill condition when 
they came there, especially their horse. 

The parliament, sensible of this, and receiving daily 
accounts of the progress we made, began to cool a little in 
their temper, abated of their first rage, and voted an address 
for peace ; and sent to the king to let him know they were 
desirous to prevent the effusion of more blood, and to bring 
things to an accomodation, or, as they called it, a right 
understanding. 

I was now, by the king's particular favour, summoned to 
the councils of war, my father continuing absent and ill ; and 
now I began to think of the real grounds, and, which was 
more, of the fatal issue of this war. I say, I now began it, 
for I cannot say that I ever rightly stated matters in my own 
mind before, though I had been enough used to blood, and to 
see the destruction of people, sacking of towns, and plunder- 
ing the country ; yet it was in Germany, and among strangers ; 
but I found a strange, secret, and unaccountable sadness 
upon my spirits to see this acting in my own native country. 
It grieved me to the heart, even in the rout of our enemies, 
to see the slaughter of them ; and even in the fight, to hear a 
man cry for quarter in English, moved me to a compassion 
which I had never been used to ; nay, sometimes it looked to me 
as if some of my own men had been beaten ; and when I heard 
a soldier cry, O God, I am shot ! I looked behind me to see 
which of my own troop was fallen. Here I saw myself 
at the cutting of the throats of my friends ; and indeed 
some of my near relations. My old comrades and fellow- 
soldiers in Germany were some with us, some against 
us, as their opinions happened to differ in religion. For my 
part, I confess I had not much religion in me at that time; but 



VOTE AN ADDRESS FOR PEACE. 141 

I thought religion, rightly practised on both sides, would have 
made us all better friends ; and, therefore, sometimes I began 
to think, that both the bishops of our side, and the preachers 
on theirs, made religion rather the pretence than the cause 
of the war ; and from those thoughts I vigorously argued it 
at the council of war against marching to Brentford, while 
the address for a treaty of peace from the parliament was in 
hand; for I was for taking the parliament by the handle 
which they had given us, and entering into a negotiation 
with the advantage of its being at their own request. 

I thought the king had now in his hands an opportunity 
to make an honourable peace ; for this battle of Edgehill, as 
much as they boasted of the victory to hearten up their friends, 
had sorely weakened their army, and discouraged their party 
too, which in effect was worse as to their army. The horse 
were particularly in an ill case, and the foot greatly dimi- 
nished ; and the remainder very sickly. But, besides this, the 
parliament were greatly alarmed at the progress we made 
afterwards ; and still fearing the king's surprising them, had 
sent for the Earl of Essex to London, to defend them ; by 
which the country was, as it were, deserted and abandoned, 
and left to be plundered ; our parties overrun all places at 
pleasure. All this while I considered, that whatever the 
soldiers of fortune meant by the war, our desires were to sup- 
press the exorbitant power of a party, to establish our king in 
his just and legal rights ; but not with a design to destroy the 
constitution of government, and the being of parliament ; and 
therefore I thought now was the time for peace, and there 
were a great many worthy gentlemen in the army of my 
mind; and, had our master had ears to hear us, the war 
might have had an end here. 

This address for peace was received by the king at Maiden- 
head, whither this army was now advanced, and his majesty 
returned answer by Sir Peter Killegrew, that he desired no- 
thing more, and would not be wanting on his part. Upon this 
the parliament named commissioners, and his majesty, except- 
ing against Sir John Evelyn, they left him out, and sent 
others ; and desired the king to appoint his residence near 
London, where the commissioners might wait upon him. 
Accordingly the king appointed Windsor for the place of 
treaty, and desired the treaty might be hastened. And thus 
all things looked with a favourable aSDect, when one unlucky 



142 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

action knocked it all on the head, and filled both parties 
with more implacable animosities than they had before, and 
all hopes of peace vanished. 

During this progress of the king's armies, we were always 
abroad with the horse ravaging the country, and plundering 
the roundheads. Prince Rupert, a most active vigilant party- 
man, and, I must own, fitter for such than for a general, was 
never lying still, and I seldom stayed behind ; for our regi- 
ment being very well mounted, he would always send for us, 
if he had any extraordinary design in hand. 

One time in particular he had a design upon Aylesbury, 
the capital of Buckinghamshire ; indeed our view at first 
was rather to beat the enemy out of the town, and demolish 
their works, and perhaps raise some contributions on the rich 
country round it, than to garrison the place, and keep it ; for 
we wanted no more garrisons, being masters of the field. 

The prince had two thousand five hundred horse with him 
in this expedition, but no foot ; the town had some foot 
raised in the country by Mr Hampden, and two regiments of 
country militia, whom we made light of, but we lound they 
stood to their tackle better than well enough. We came 
very early to the town, and thought they had no notice of us ; 
but some false brother had given them the alarm, and we 
found them all in arms, the hedges without the town lined 
with musketeers, on that side in particular where they 
expected us, and two regiments of foot drawn up in view to 
support them, with some horse in the rear of all. 

The prince willing however to do something, caused 
some of his horse to alight, and serve as dragoons ; and 
having broken away into the enclosures, the horse beat the 
foot from behind the hedges, while the rest who were alighted 
\harged them in the lane which leads to the town. Here 
they had cast up some works, and fired from their lines very 
regularly, considering them as militia only, the governor 
encouraging them by his example ; so that finding without 
some foot there would be no good to be done, we gave it over 
and drew off; and so Aylesbury escaped a scouring for that 
time. 

I cannot deny but these flying parties of horse committed 
great spoil among the country people ; and sometimes the 
prince gave a liberty to some cruelties which were not at all 
for the king's interest ; because, it being still upon our own 



THE MISERIES OF CIVIL WAR. 143 

country, and the king's own subjects, whom, in all his decla- 
rations, he protested to be careful of, it seemed to contradict 
all those protestations and declarations, and served to aggra- 
vate and exasperate the common people ; and the king's 
enemies made all the advantages of it that was possible, by- 
crying out of twice as many extravagancies as were com- 
mitted. 

It is true the king, who naturally abhorred such things, 
could not restrain his men, no nor his generals, so absolutely 
as he would have done. The war, on his side, was very much 
a la voluntier ; many gentlemen served him at their own 
charge, and some paid whole regiments themselves. Some- 
times also the king's affairs were straiter than ordinary, and 
his men were not very well paid, and this obliged him to 
wink at their excursions upon the country, though he did not 
approve of them ; and yet, I must own, that in those parts of 
England where the war was hottest, there never was seen 
that ruin and depopulation, murders, ravishments, and bar- 
barities, which I have seen even among protestant armies 
abroad in Germany, and other foreign parts of the world. 
And if the parliament people had seen those things abroad, 
as I had, they would not have complained. 

The most I have seen was plundering the towns for provi- 
sions, drinking up their beer, and turning our horses into 
their fields, or stacks of corn ; and sometimes the soldiers 
would be a little rude with the wenches ; but, alas ! what was 
this to Count Tilly's ravages in Saxony ? Or what was our 
taking of Leicester by storm, where they cried out of our 
barbarities, to the sacking of New Brandenburgh, or the 
taking of Magdeburgh? In Leicester, of seven or eight 
thousand people in the town, three hundred were killed ; in 
Magdeburgh, of twenty-five thousand, scarce two thousand 
seven hundred were left, and the whole town burnt to ashes. 
I myself have seen seventeen or eighteen villages on fire in a 
day, and the people driven away from their dwellings, like 
herds of cattle ; the men murdered, the women stript, and 
seven or eight hundred of them together, after they had 
suffered all the indignities and abuses of the soldiers, driven 
stark naked in the winter through the great towns, to seek 
shelter and relief from the charity of their enemies. I do not 
instance these greater barbarities to j ustify the lesser actions, 
which are nevertheless irregular ; but, I do say, that circum* 



144 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

stances considered, this war was managed with as much 
humanity on both sides as could be expected, especially also 
considering the animosity of parties. 



CHAPTER XI. 

COMICAL ADVENTURES, IN WHICH A FEMALE CAPTAIN IS 

VICTORIOUS BRAVERY OF THE PARLIAMENT TROOPS AT 

BRENTFORD THE WINTER SPENT IN FRUITLESS TREATIES 

1 AM WOUNDED IN A SKIRMISH WITH THE ENEMY 

FARTHER PROCEEDINGS OF THE ARMIES. 

But to return to the prince ; he had not always the same 
success in these enterprises ; for sometimes we came short 
home. And I cannot omit one pleasant adventure which 
happened to a party of ours, in one of these excursions into 
Buckinghamshire. The major of our regiment was soundly 
beaten by a party, which, as I may say, was led by a woman ; 
and, if I had not rescued him, I know not but he had been 
taken prisoner by a woman. It seems our men had besieged 
some fortified house about Oxfordshire, towards Tame, and 
the house being defended by the lady in her husband's 
absence, she had yielded the house upon a capitulation ; one 
of the articles of which was to march out with all her 
servants, soldiers, and goods, and to be conveyed to Tame; 
whether she thought to have gone no farther, or that she 
reckoned herself safe there, I know not; but my major, 
with two troops of horse, meets with this lady and her party, 
about five miles from Tame, as we were coming back from 
our defeated attack of Aylesbury. We reckoned ourselves 
in an enemy's country, and had lived a little at large, or at 
discretion, as it is called abroad ; and these two troops with 
the major were returning to our detachment from a little 
village, where, at the farmer's house, they had met with 
some liquor, and truly some of his men were so drunk they 
could but just sit upon their horses. The major himself was 
not much better, and the whole body were but in a sorry 
condition to fight. Upon the road they meet this party ; the 
lady having no design of fighting, and being, as she thought, 
under the protection of the articles, sounds a parley, and 



A FEMALE CAPTAIN VICTORIOUS. 145 

desired to speak with the officer. The major, as drunk as 
he was, could tell her, that by the articles she was to be 
assured no farther than Tame, and being now five miles 
beyond it, she was a fair enemy, and therefore demanded to 
render themselves prisoners. The lady seemed surprised; 
but being sensible she was in the wrong, offered to compound 
for her goods, and would have given him 300Z., and, I think, 
seven or eight horses. The major would certainly have 
taken it, if he had not been drunk; but he refused it, and 
gave threatening words to her, blustering in language which 
he thought proper to frighten a woman, viz., that he would 
cut them all to pieces, and give no quarter, and the like. 
The lady, who had been more used to the smell of powder 
than he imagined, called some ot her servants to her, and, 
consulting with them what to do, they all unanimously 
encouraged her to let them fight ; told her it was plain that 
the commander was drUnk, and all that were with him were 
rather worse than he, and hardly able to sit their horses; 
and that therefore one bold charge would put them all into 
confusion. In a word, she consented, and, as she was a 
woman, they desired her to secure herself among the 
waggons ; but she refused, and told them bravely, she would 
take her fate with them. In short, she boldly bade my 
major defiance, and that he might do his worst, since she 
had offered him fair and he had refused it ; her mind was 
altered now, and she would give him nothing, and bade his 
officer that parleyed longer with her, begone ; so the parley 
ended. After this, she gave him fair leave to go back to his 
men ; but before he could tell his tale to them, she was at 
his heels, with all her men, and gave him such a home- 
charge as put his men into disorder ; and, being too drunk 
to rally, they were knocked down before they knew what to 
do with themselves ; and in a few minutes more they took to 
a plain flight. But what was still worse, the men, being 
some of them very drunk, when they came to run for their 
lives, fell over one another, and tumbled over their horses, 
and made such work, that a troop of women might have 
beaten them all. In this pickle, with the enemy at his heels, 
I came in with him, hearing the noise ; when I appeared, 
the pursuers retreated, and, seeing what a condition my 
people were in, and not knowing the strength of the enemy, 
I contented myself with bringing them off without pursuing 

VOL. II. L 



146 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

the other; nor could I hear positively who this female 
captain was. We lost seventeen or eighteen of our men, 
and about thirty horses ; but, when the particulars of the 
story was told us, our major was so laughed at by the whole 
army, and laughed at everywhere, that he was ashamed to 
show himself for a week or a fortnight after. 

But, to return to the king. His majesty, as I observed, 
was at Maidenhead addressed by the parliament for peace, 
and Windsor being appointed for the place of treaty, the van 
oi his army lay at Colnbrook. In the meantime, whether it 
were true, or only a pretence, but it was reported the 
parliament-general had sent a body of his troops, with a 
train of artillery, to Hammersmith, in order to fall upon 
some part of our army, or to take some advanced post, 
which was to the prejudice of our men; whereupon, 
the king ordered the army to march, and, by the favour of a 
thick mist, came within half a mile of Brentford before he 
was discovered. There were two regiments of foot, and 
about six hundred horse in the town, of the enemy's best 
troops ; these taking the alarm, posted themselves on the 
bridge at the west end of the town. The king attacked 
them with a select detachment of his best infantry, and they 
defended themselves with incredible obstinacy. I must own, 
I never saw raw men, for they could not have been in arms 
above four months, act like them in my life. In short, there 
was no forcing these men; for, though two whole brigades 
of our foot, backed by our horse, made five several attacks 
upon them, they could not break them, and we lost a great 
many brave men in that action. At last, seeing the obstinacy 
of these men, a party of horse was ordered to go round from 
Osterly; and, entering the town on the north side, where, 
though the horse made some resistance, it was not con- 
siderable ; the town was presently taken. I led my regiment 
through an enclosure, and came into the town nearer to the 
bridge than the rest, by which means I got first into the 
town ; but I had this loss by my expedition, that the foot 
charged me before the body was come up, and poured in 
their shot very furiously; my men were but in an ill case, 
and would not have stood much longer, if the rest of the 
horse coming up the lane had not found them other employ- 
ment. When the horse were thus entered, they immediately 
dispersed the enemy's horse, who fled away towards London, 



BATTLE OF BRENTFORD DISHONOURABLE. 147 

and falling in sword in hand upon the rear of the foot, who 
were engaged at the bridge, they were all cut in pieces, 
except about two hundred, who, scorning to ask quarter, 
desperately threw themselves into the river Thames, where 
they were most of them drowned. 

The parliament, and their party, made a great outcry at 
this attempt; that it was base and treacherous while in a 
treaty of peace ; and that the king, having amused them 
with hearkening to a treaty, designed to have seized upon 
their train of artillery first, and, after that, to have surprised 
both the city of London and the parliament. And I have 
observed since, that our historians note this action as contrary 
to the laws of honour and treaties ; though, as there was no 
cessation of arms agreed on, nothing is more contrary to the 
laws of war than to suggest it. 

That it was a very unhappy thing to the king and whole 
nation, as it broke off the hopes of peace, and was the occa- 
sion of bringing the Scots' army in upon us, I readily acknow- 
ledge ; but that there was anything dishonourable in it, I 
cannot allow : for, though the parliament had addressed to 
the king for peace, and such steps were taken in it, as before; 
yet, as I have said, there was no proposal made on either 
side for a cessation of arms ; and all the world must allow, 
that in such cases the war goes on in the field, while the 
peace goes on in the cabinet. And if the war goes on, admit 
the king had designed to surprise the city or parliament, or 
all of them, it had been no more than the custom of war 
allows, and what they would have done by him, if they 
could. The treaty of Westphalia, or peace of Munster, which 
ended the bloody wars of Germany, was a precedent for this. 
That treaty was actually negotiating seven years, and yet the 
war went on with all the vigour and rancour imaginable, 
even to the last : nay, the very time after the conclusion of 
it, but before the news could be brought to the army, did he 
that was afterwards King of Sweden, Carolus Gustavus, take 
the city of Prague, by surprise, and therein an inestimable 
booty. Besides, all the wars of Europe are full of examples 
of this kind ; and, therefore, I cannot see any reason to blame 
the king for this action as to the fairness of it. Indeed, as to 
the policy of it, I can say little ; but the case was this, the 
king had a gallant army, flushed with success, and things 
hitherto had gone on very prosperously, both with his own 

l 2 



148 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

army and elsewhere ; he had above thirty-five thousand men 
in his own army, including his garrisons left at Banbury, 
Shrewsbury, Worcester, Oxford, Wallingford, Abingdon, 
Reading, and places adjacent. On the other hand, the par- 
liament army came back to London in but a sorry condition* ; 
for, what with their loss in their victory, as they called it, at 
Edgehill, their sickness, and a hast^ march to London, they 
were very much diminished ; though at London they soon 
recruited them again. And this prosperity of the king's 
affairs might encourage him to strike this blow, thinking to 
bring the parliament to better terms, by the apprehensions of 
the superior strength of the king's forces. 

But, however it was, the success did not equally answer 
the king's expectation ; the vigorous defence the troops posted 
at Brentford made as above, gave the Earl of Essex oppor- 
tunity, with extraordinary application, to draw his forces out 
to Turnham-green ; and the exceeding alacrity of the enemy 
was such, that their whole army appeared with them, making 
together an army of twenty-four thousand men, drawn up in 
view of our forces, by eight o'clock the next morning. The 
city regiments were placed between the regular troops, and 
all together offered us battle ; but we were not in a condition 
to accept it. The king indeed was sometimes of the mind to 
charge them, and once or twice ordered parties to advance 
to begin to skirmish, but, upon better advice, altered his 
mind ; and indeed, it was the wisest counsel to defer the 
fighting at that time. The parliament generals were as unfixed 
in their resolutions on the other side, as the king : sometimes 
they sent out parties, and then called them back again. One 
strong party, of near three thousand men, marched off towards 
Acton, with orders to amuse us on that side, but were coun- 
termanded. Indeed, I was of the opinion we might have 
ventured the battle ; for, though the parliament's army were 
more numerous, yet the city trained bands, which made up 
four thousand of their foot, were not much esteemed, and the 
king was a great deal stronger in horse than they ; but the 
main reason that hindered the engagement was want of 
ammunition, which the king having duly weighed, he caused 
the carriages and cannon to draw off first, and then the foot, 

* General Ludlow, in his Memoirs, p. 52, says, " their men returned 
from Warwick to London, not like men who had obtained a victory, but 
like men that had been beaten." 



WINTER SPENT IN FRUITLESS TREATIES. 149 

the horse continuing to face the enemy till all was clear gone, 
and then we drew off too, and marched to Kingston, and the 
next day to Reading. 

Now the king saw his mistake in not continuing his march 
for London, instead of facing about to fight the enemy at 
Edgehill. And all the honour we had gained in so many 
successful enterprises lay buried in this shameful retreat from 
an army of citizens' wives. For, truly, that appearance at 
Turnham-green was gay, but not great. There were as many 
lookers-on as actors ; the crowds of ladies, apprentices, and 
mob, was so great, that, when the parties of our army ad- 
vanced, and, as they thought, to charge, the coaches, 
horsemen, and crowd, that cluttered away, to be out of harm's 
way, looked little better than a rout ; and I was persuaded a 
good home charge from our horse would have sent their 
whole army after them : but so it was, that this crowd of an 
army was to triumph over us, and they did it; for all the 
kingdom was carefully informed how their dreadful looks had 
frightened us away. 

Upon our retreat, the parliament resent this attack, which 
they call treacherous, and vote no accommodation ; but they 
considered of it afterwards, and sent six commissioners to the 
king with propositions ; but the change of the scene of action 
changed the terms of peace, and now they made terms like 
conquerers, petition him to desert his army, and return to the 
parliament, and the like. Had his majesty, at the head of 
his army, with the full reputation they had before, and in the 
ebb of their affairs, rested at Windsor, and commenced a 
treaty, they had certainly made more reasonable proposals , 
but now the scabbard seemed to be thrown away on both 
sides. 

The rest of the winter was spent in strengthening parties 
and places ; also in fruitless treaties of peace, messages, re- 
monstrances, and paper war, on both sides, and no action 
remarkable happened anywhere, that I remember. Yet the 
king gained ground everywhere, and his forces in the north 
increased under the Earl of Newcastle ; also my Lord Goring, 
then only called Colonel Goring, arrived from Holland, 
bringing three ships loaden with arms and ammunition, and 
notice that the queen was following with more. Goring 
brought four thousand barrels of gunpowder, and twenty 
thousand small arms ; all which came very seasonably, for 



150 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

the king was in great want of them, especially the powder. 
Upon this recruit, the Earl of Newcastle draws down to 
York, and being above a thousand strong, made Sir Thomas 
Fairfax give ground, and retreat to Hull. 

Whoever lay still, prince Rupert was always abroad, and 
I chose to go out with his highness as often as I had oppor- 
tunity ; for hitherto he was always successful. About this 
time the prince, being at Oxford, I gave him intelligence of 
a party of the enemy who lived a little at large, too much for 
good soldiers, about Cirencester: the prince, glad of the 
news, resolved to attack them ; and though it was a wet 
season, and the ways exceeding bad, being in February, yet 
we marched all night in the dark, which occasioned the loss 
of some horses and men too, in sloughs and holes, which the 
darkness of the night had suffered them to fall into. We were 
a very strong party, being about three thousand horse and 
dragoons, and coming to Cirencester very early in the morn- 
ing, to our great satisfaction the enemy were perfectly sur- 
prised, not having the least notice of our march, which 
answered our end more ways than one. However, the Earl 
of Stamford's regiment made some resistance ; but the town 
having no works to defend it, saving a slight breastwork at 
the entrance of the road, with a turnpike, our dragoons 
alighted, and forcing their way over the bellies of Stamford's 
foot, they beat them from their defence, and followed them 
at their heels into the town. Stamford's regiment was entirely 
cut in pieces, and several others, to the number of about 
eight hundred men, and the town entered without any other 
resistance. We took twelve hundred prisoners, three thousand 
arms, and the county magazine, which at that time was con- 
siderable; for there was about one hundred and twenty 
barrels of powder, and all things in proportion. 

I received the first hurt I got in this war, at this action ; 
for having followed the dragoons, and brought my regiment 
within the barricado which they had gained, a musket-bullet 
struck my horse just in the head, and that so effectually, that 
he fell down as dead as a stone, all at once. The fall plunged 
me into a puddle of water, and daubed me, and my man having 
brought me another horse, and cleaned me a little, I was just 
getting np, when another bullet struck me on my left hand, 
which I had just clapped on the horses mane, to lift myself 
into the saddle. The blow broke one of my fingers, and 



PROSPERITY OF THE KING'S AFFAIRS. 151 

bruised my hand very much, and it proved a very painful 
hurt to me. For the present I did not much concern myself 
about it, but made my man tie it up close in my handkerchief, 
and led up my men to the market-place, where we had a very 
smart brush with some musketeers who were posted in the 
churchyard ; but our dragoons soon beat them out there, and 
the whole town was then our own. We made no stay here, 
but marched back with all our booty to Oxford, for we knew 
the enemy were very strong at Gloucester, and that way. 

Much about the same time, the Earl of Northampton, with 
a strong party, set upon Lichfield, and took the town, but 
could not take the close ; but they beat a body of four thou- 
sand men coming to the relief of the town, under Sir John 
Gell, of Derbyshire, and Sir William Brereton of Cheshire, 
and killing six hundred of them, dispersed the rest. 

Our second campaign now began to open ; the king marched 
from Oxford to relieve Reading, which was besieged by the 
parliament forces ; but Colonel Fielding, lieutenant-governor, 
Sir Arthur Ashton being wounded, surrendered to Essex 
before the king could come up ; for which he was tried by 
martial law, and condemned to die, but the king forbore to 
execute the sentence. This was the first town we had lost in 
the war ; for still the success of the king's affairs was very 
encouraging. This bad news however was overbalanced by 
an account brought the king at the same time, by an express 
from York, that the queen had landed in the north, and had 
brought over a great magazine of arms and ammunition, 
besides some men. Some time after this, her majesty marching 
southward to meet the king, joined the army near Edgehill, 
where the first battle was fought. She brought the king 
three thousand foot, fifteen hundred horse and dragoons, six 
pieces of cannon, fifteen hundred barrels of powder, and 
twelve thousand small arms. 

During this prosperity of the king's affairs, his armies 
increased mightily in the western counties also. Sir William 
Waller indeed commanded for the parliament in those parts 
too, and particularly in Dorsetshire, Hampshire, and Berk- 
shire, where he carried on their cause but too fast ; but farther 
west, Sir Nicholas Flamming, Sir Ralph Hopton, and Sir 
Bevil Greenvil, had extended the king's quarters from Corn- 
wall through Devonshire, and into Somersetshire, where they 
took Exeter, Barnstaple, and Biddeford ; and the first of these 



152 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. 

they fortified very well, making it a place of arms for the west, 
and afterwards it was the residence of the queen. 

At last the famous Sir William Waller, and the king's forces 
met, and came to a pitched battle, where Sir William lost all 
his honour again. This was at Roundway-down, in Wiltshire. 

Waller had engaged our Cornish army at Lansdown, and 
in a very obstinate fight had the better of them, and made 
them retreat to Devizes ; Sir William Hopton, however, 
having a good body ot foot untouched, sent expresses and 
messengers, one in the neck of another, to the king for some 
horse, and the king being in great concern for that army, who 
were composed of the flower of the Cornish men, commanded 
me to march with all possible secrecy, as well as expedition, 
with twelve hundred horse and dragoons from Oxford to join 
them. We set out in the depth of the night, to avoid, if 
possible, any intelligence being given of our route, and soon 
joined with the Cornish army, when it was soon resolved to 
give battle to Waller ; and, give him his due, he was as 
forward to fight as we. As it is easy to meet when both sides 
are willing to be found, Sir William^ Waller met us upon 
Roundway-down, where we had a fair field on both sides, and 
room enough to draw up our horse. In a word, there was 
little ceremony to the work; the armies joined, and we 
charged his horse with so much resolution, that they quickly 
fled, and quitted the field ; for we over-matched him in horse, 
and this was the entire destruction of their army : for their 
infantry, which outnumbered ours by fifteen hundred, were 
now at our mercy ; some faint resistance they made, just 
enough to give us occasion to break into their ranks with our 
horse, where we gave time to our foot to defeat others that 
stood to their work ; upon which they began to disband, and 
run every way they could, but our horse having surrounded 
them, we made a fearful havoc of them. 

We lost not above two hundred men in this action ; Waller 
lost above four thousand killed and taken, and as many 
dispersed that never returned to their colours ; those of foot 
that escaped got into Bristol, and Waller, with the poor 
remains of his routed regiments, got to London ; so that it is 
plain some run east, and some run west, that is to say, they 
fled every way they could. 

My going with this detachment prevented my being at the 
siege of Bristol, which Prince Rupert attacked much about 



THE SIEGE OF BRISTOL. 153 

the same time, and it surrendered in three days. The par- 
liament questioned Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes, the governor, 
and had him tried as a coward by a court-martial, and con- 
demned to die, but suspended the execution also, as the king 
did the governor of Reading. I have often heard Prince 
Rupert say, they did Colonel Fiennes wrong in that affair ; 
and that if the colonel would have summoned him, he would 
have demanded a passport of the parliament, and have come 
up and convinced the court, that Colonel Fiennes had not 
misbehaved himself; and that he had not a sufficient garrison 
to defend a city of that extent ; having not above one thousand 
two hundred men in the town, excepting some of Waller's 
runaways, most of whom were unfit for service, and without 
arms ; and that the citizens in general being disaffected to 
him, and ready on the first occasion to open the gates to the 
king's forces, it was impossible for him to have kept the city; 
and when I had farther informed them, said the prince, of the 
measures I had taken for a general assault the next day, I am 
confident I should have convinced them, that I had taken the 
city by storm, if he had not surrendered. 

The king's affairs were now in a very good posture, and 
three armies in the north, west, and in the centre, counted 
in the musters above seventy thousand men, besides small 
garrisons and parties abroad. Several' of the lords, and more 
of the commons, began to fall off from the parliament, and 
make their peace with the king ; and the affairs of the par- 
liament began to look very ill. The city of London was their 
inexhaustible support and magazine, both for men, money, 
and all things necessary ; and whenever their army was out 
of order, the clergy of their party in but one Sunday or two, 
would preach the young citizens out of their shops, the 
labourers from their masters, into the army, and recruit them 
on a sudden ; and all this was still owing to the omission I 
first observed, of not marching to London, when it might 
have been so easily effected. 

We had now another, or a fairer opportunity than before, 
but as ill use was made of it. The king, as I have observed, 
was in a very good posture ; he had three large armies roving 
at large over the kingdom. The Cornish army, victorious 
and numerous, had beaten Waller, secured and fortified 
Exeter, which the queen had made her residence, and was 
there delivered of a daughter, the Princess Henrietta Maria, 



154 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

afterwards Duchess of Orleans, and mother of the Duchess 
Dowager of Savoy, commonly known in the French style by 
the title of Madame Royal. They had secured Salisbury, 
Sherborn Castle, Weymouth, Winchester, and Basing-house, 
and commanded the whole country, except Bridgewater and 
Taunton, Plymouth and Lynn ; all which places they held 
blocked up. The king was also entirely master of all Wales, 
Monmouthshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worces- 
tershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and all the towns from 
Windsor up the Thames to Cirencester, except Reading and 
Henley ; and of the whole Severn, except Gloucester. 

The Earl of Newcastle had garrisons in every strong place 
in the north, from Berwick-upon-Tweed, to Boston in Lin- 
colnshire, and Newark-upon-Trent, Hull only excepted, 
whither the Lord Fairfax and his son Sir Thomas were 
retreated, their troops being routed and broken, Sir Thomas 
Fairfax, his baggage, with his lady and servants, taken 
prisoners, and himself hardly escaping. 

And now a great council of war was held in the king's 
quarters, what enterprise to go upon ; * and it happened to be 
the very same day when the parliament were in a seriou? 
debate what should become of them, and whose help they 
should seek ? And indeed they had cause for it ; and had 
our counsels been as ready and well grounded as theirs, we 
had put an end to the war in a month's time. 

In this council the king proposed the marching to London, 
to put an end to the parliament, and encourage his friends 
and loyal subjects in Kent, who were ready to rise for him ; 
and showed us letters from the Earl of Newcastle, wherein 
he offered to join his majesty with a detachment of four 
thousand horse, and eight thousand foot, if his majesty thought 
fit to march southward, and yet leave forces sufficient to 
guard the north from any invasion 1 . I confess, when I saw 
the scheme the king had himself drawn for this attempt, I 
felt an unusual satisfaction in my mind, from the hopes that 
we might bring this war to some tolerable end ; for I pro- 
fessed myself on all occasions heartily weary of fighting with 
friends, brothers, neighbours, and acquaintance ; and I made 
no question, but this motion of the king's would effectually 
bring the parliament to reason. 

All men seemed to like the enterprise but the Earl of 
Worcester ; who, on particular views for securing the country 



THE CITY OF GLOUCESTER BLOCKADED. 155 

behind, as lie called, it, proposed the taking in the town of 
Gloucester and Hereford first. He made a long speech of 
the danger of leaving Massey, an active bold fellow, with a 
strong party, in the heart of all the king's quarters, ready on 
all occasions to sally out, and surprise the neighbouring 
garrisons, as he had done Sudley Castle and others ; and of 
the ease and freedom to all those western parts, to have them 
fully cleared of the enemy. Interest presently backs this 
advice, and all those gentlemen whose estates lay that way, 
or whose friends lived about Worcester, Shrewsbury, Bridge- 
north, or the borders ; and who, as they said, had heard the 
frequent wishes of the country to have the city of Gloucester 
reduced, fell in with this advice, alleging the consequence it 
was of for the commerce of the country, to have the naviga- 
tion of the Severn free, which was only interrupted by this 
one town from the sea up to Shrewsbury, &c. 

I opposed this, and so did several others : Prince Rupert 
was vehemently against it ; and we both offered, with the 
troops of the county, to keep Gloucester blocked up during 
the king's march for London, so that Massey should not be 
able to stir. 

This proposal made the Earl of Worcester's party more 
eager for the siege than before ; for they had no mind to a 
blockade, which would lead the county to maintain the troops 
all the summer ; and of all men, the prince did not please 
them ; for he having no extraordinary character for discipline, 
his company was not much desired even by our friends. 
Thus, in an ill hour, it was resolved to sit down before 
Gloucester. The king had a gallant army of twenty-eight 
thousand men, whereof eleven thousand horse, the finest body 
of gentlemen that ever I saw together in my life ; their horses 
without comparison, and their equipages the finest and the 
best in the world, and their persons Englishmen, which, I 
think, is enough to say of them. 

According to the resolution taken in the council of war, 
the army marched westward, and sat down before Gloucester 
the beginning of August. There we spent a month to the 
least purpose that ever army did ; our men received frequent 
affronts from the desperate sallies of an inconsiderable enemy. 
I cannot forbear reflecting on the misfortunes of this siege ; 
our men were strangely dispirited in all the assaults they 



156 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

gave upon the place ; there was something looked like disaster 
and mismanagement, and our men went on with an ill-will 
and no resolution. The king despised the place, and meaning 
to carry it sword in hand, made no regular approaches, and 
the garrison being desperate, made therefore the greater 
slaughter. In this work our horse, who were so numerous 
and so fine, had no employment. Two thousand horse had 
been enough for this business, and the enemy had no garrison 
or party within forty miles of us ; so that we had nothing to 
do but look on with infinite regret, upon the losses of our 
foot. 

The enemy made frequent and desperate sallies, in one of 
which I had my share. I was posted upon a parade, or 
place of arms, with part of my regiment, and part of 
Colonel Goring's regiment of horse, in order to support a 
body of foot, who were ordered to storm the point of a 
breastwork which the enemy had raised to defend one of the 
avenues to the town. The foot were beat off with loss, as 
they always were ; and Massey, the governor, not content to 
have beaten them from his works, sallies out with near four 
hundred men, and, falling in upon the foot as they were 
rallying under the cover of our horse, we put ourselves in 
the best posture we could to receive them. As Massey did 
not expect, I suppose, to engage with any horse, he had no 
pikes with him, which encouraged us to treat him the more 
rudely ; but as to desperate men danger is no danger, when 
he found lie must clear his hands of us before he could 
despatch the foot, he faces up to us, fires but one volley of 
his small shot, and fell to battering us with the stocks of 
their muskets in such a manner that one would have thought 
they had been madmen. 

We at first despised this way of clubbing us, and, charging 
through them, laid a great many of them upon the ground ; 
and, in repeating our charge, trampled more of them under 
our horses' feet ; and wheeling thus continually, beat them 
off from our foot, who were just upon the point of dis- 
banding. Upon this they charged us again with their fire, 
and at one volley killed thirty-three or thirty-four men and 
horses ; and had they had pikes with them, I know not what 
we should have done with them. But at last charging 
through them again, we divided them; one part of them, 



THE KING S ARMY MUCH DISTRESSED. 



157 



"being hemmed in between us and our own foot, were cut in 
pieces to a man ; the rest, as I understood afterwards, re- 
treated into the town, having lost three hundred of their men. 

In this last charge I received a rude blow from a stout 
fellow on foot, with the butt-end of his musket, which per- 
fectly stunned me and fetched me off from my horse ; and 
had not some near me took care of me, I had been trod to 
death by our own men. But the fellow being immediately killed, 
and my friends finding me alive, had taken me up, and 
carried me off some distance, where I came to myself again, 
after some time, but knew little of what I did or said that 
night. This was the reason why I say I afterwards under- 
stood the enemy retreated ; for I saw no more what they did 
then ; nor indeed was I well of this blow for all the rest of 
the summer, but had frequent pains in my head, dizzinesses 
and swimming, that gave me some fears the blow had in- 
jured the scull, but it wore off again; nor did it at all hinder 
my attending my charge. 

This action, I think, was the only one that looked like a 
defeat given the enemy at this siege ; we killed them near 
three hundred men, as I have said, and lost about sixty of 
our troopers. 

All this time, while the king was harassing and weakening 
the best army he ever saw together during the whole war, 
the parliament generals, or rather preachers, were recruiting 
theirs ; for the preachers were better than drummers to raise 
volunteers, zealously exhorting the London dames to^art 
with their husbands, and the city to send some of their 
trained-bands to join the army for the relief of Gloucester ; 
and now they began to advance towards us. 

The king, hearing of the advance of Essex's army, who 
by this 'time was come to Aylesbury, had summoned what 
forces he had within call to join him ; and, accordingly, he 
received three thousand foot from Somersetshire, and, having 
battered the town for thirty-six hours, and made a fair 
breach, resolves upon an assault, if possible to carry the 
town before the enemy c&me up. The assault was begun 
about seven in the evening, and the men boldly mounted the 
breach ; but, afcer a very obstinate and bloody dispute, were 
beaten out again by the besieged with great loss. 

Being thus often repulsed, and the Earl of Essex's army 
approaching, the king calls a council of war, and proposed 



158 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

to fight Essex's army. The officers of the horse were for 
fighting ; and, without doubt, we were superior to him both 
in number and goodness of our horse, but the foot were not 
in an equal condition ; and the colonels of foot representing 
to the king the weakness of their regiments, and how their 
men had been baulked and disheartened at this cursed siege, 
the graver counsel prevailed, and it was resolved to raise the 
siege, and retreat towards Bristol, till the army was re- 
cruited. Pursuant to this resolution, the 5th of September, 
the king, having before sent away his heavy cannon and 
baggage, raised the siege, and marched to Berkley Castle. 
The Earl of Essex came the next day to Birdlip hills ; and 
understanding, by messengers from Colonel Massey, that the 
siege was raised, sends a recruit of two thousand five 
hundred men into the city, and followed us himself with a 
great body of horse. 

This body of horse showed themselves to us once in a 
large field fit to have entertained them in ; and our scouts 
having assured us they were not above four thousand, and 
had no foot with them, the king ordered a detachment of 
about the same number to face them. I desired his majesty 
to let us have two regiments of dragoons with us, which was 
then eight hundred men in a regiment, lest there might be 
some dragoons among the enemy, which the king granted, 
and accordingly we marched, and drew up in view of them. 
They stood their ground, having, as they supposed, some 
advantage of the manner they were posted in, and expected 
we would charge them. The king, who did us the honour 
to command this party, finding they would not stir, calls me 
to him, and ordered me, with the dragoons and my own 
regiment, to take a circuit round by a village to a certain 
lane, where in their retreat they must have passed, and 
which opened to a small common on the flank, with orders, 
if they engaged, to advance and charge them in the flank. 
I marched immediately ; but though the country about there 
was almost all enclosures, yet their scouts were so vigilant 
that they discovered me, and gave notice to the body ; upon 
which their whole party moved to the left, as if they in- 
tended to charge me, before the king with his body of horse 
could come ; but the king was too vigilant to be circumvented 
so; and, therefore, his majesty, perceiving this, sends away 
three regiments of horse to second me, and a messenger 



THE KING'S AFFAIRS BEGIN TO DECLINE. 159 

before them, to order me to halt, and expect the enemy, for 
that he would follow with the whole body. 

But before this order reached me, I had halted for some 
time ; for, finding myself discovered, and not judging it safe 
to be entirely cut off from the main body, I stopt at the 
village, and, causing my dragoons to alight, and line a thick 
hedge on my left, I drew up my horse just at the entrance 
into the village, opening to a common ; the enemy came up 
on the trot to charge me, but were saluted with a terrible 
fire from the dragoons out of the hedge, which killed them 
near a hundred men. This being a perfect surprise to them, 
they halted ; and just at that moment they received orders 
from their main body to retreat ; the king at the same time 
appearing upon some small heights in their rear, which 
obliged them to think of retreating, or coming to a general 
battle, which was none of their design. 

I had no occasion to follow them, not being in a condition 
to attack their whole body; but the dragoons coming out into 
the common, gave them another volley at a distance, which 
reached them effectually ; for it killed about twenty of them, 
and wounded more ; but they drew off, and never fired a shot 
at us, fearing to be enclosed between two parties, and so 
marched away to their general's quarters, leaving ten or 
twelve more of their fellows killed, and about a hundred and 
eighty horses. Our men, after the country fashion, gave them 
a shout at parting, to let them see we knew they were afraid 
of us. 

However, this relieving of Gloucester raised the spirits as 
well as the reputation of the parliament forces, and was a 
great defeat to us ; and from this time things began to look 
with a melancholy aspect ; for the prosperous condition of 
the king's affairs began to decline. The opportunities he had 
let slip were never to be recovered ; and the parliament, in 
their former extremity, having voted an invitation to the Scots 
to march to their assistance, we had now new enemies to en- 
counter ; and indeed there began the ruin of his majesty's 
affairs ; for the Earl of Newcastle, not able to defend himself 
against the Scots on his rear, the Earl of Manchester in his 
front, and Sir Thomas Fairfax on his flank, was everywhere 
routed and defeated, and his forces obliged to quit the field to 
the enemy. 



1G0 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 



CHAPTER XII. 

CROMWELL MAKES HIS APPEARANCE ON THE STAGE, AND 
TURNS THE FORTUNE OF THE WAR AGAINST THE KING'S 

PARTY FREQUENT AND DISASTROUS ACTIONS THE SCOTS 

DECLARE FOR THE PARLIAMENT, AND ENTER ENGLAND, 

WITH AN ARMY IN THE NORTH THE KING BRINGS 

IRISH REGIMENTS OVER, WHICH GIVES GREAT DISGUST 

1 AM DETACHED WITH PRINCE RUPERT TO THE RELIEF 

OF YORK, WHICH WE ACCOMPLISH DISASTROUS ACTION 

WITH CROMWELL. 

About this time it was that we first began to hear of one 
Oliver Cromwell, who, like a little cloud, rose out of the east, 
and spread first into the north, till it shed down a flood that 
overwhelmed the three kingdoms 

He first was a private captain of horse, but now commanded 
a regiment, whom he armed cap-a-pee a la cuirassier ; and 
joining with the Earl of Manchester, the first action we heard 
of him, that made him anything famous, was about Grantham, 
where, with only his own regiment, he deft-,*' d twenty-four 
troops of horse and dragoons of the king's ibrces : then at 
Gainsborough, with two regiments, his own of horae, and 
one of dragoons, where he defeated near three thousand of 
the Earl of Newcastle's men, killed lieutenant-general Caven- 
dish, brother to the Earl of Devonshire, who commanded 
them, and relieved Gainsborough ; and though the whole 
army came in to the rescue, he made good his retreat to Lin- 
coln with little loss; and the next week he defeated Sir John 
Henderson, at Winsby, near Horncastle, with sixteen regi- 
ments of horse and dragoons, himself having not half that 
number, killed the Lord Widdrington, Sir Ingram Hopton, 
and several gentlemen of quality. 

Thus this firebrand of war began to blaze, a"nd he soon 
grew a terror to the north ; for victory attended him like a 
page of honour, and he was scarce ever known to be beaten 
during the whole war. 

Now we began to reflect again on the misfortune of oui 
master's counsels. Had we marched to London, instead oi 



KING'S TROOPS SURPRISED AT CIRENCESTER. 161 

besieging Gloucester, we had finished the war with a stroke. 
The parliament's army was in a most despicable condition, 
and had never been recruited, had we not given them a 
month's time, which we lingered away at this fatal town of 
Gloucester. But it was too late to reflect ; we were a dis- 
heartened army, but we were not beaten yet, nor broken ; 
we had a large country to recruit in, and we lost no time, but 
raised men apace. In the mean time his majesty, after a 
short stay at Bristol, makes back again towards Oxford with 
a part of the foot, and all the horse. 

At Cirencester we had a brush again with Essex ; that town 
owed us a shrewd turn for having handled them coarsely 
enough before, when Prince Rupert seized the county maga- 
zine. I happened to be in the town that night with Sir 
Nicholas Crisp, whose regiment of horse quartered there, 
with Colonel Spencer, and some foot; my own regiment was 
gone before to Oxford. About ten at night, a party of 
Essex's men beat up our quarters by surprise, just as we had 
served them before ; they fell in with us, just as people 
were going to bed, and having beaten the outguards, were 
gotten into the middle of the town, before our men could get 
on horseback. Sir Nicholas Crisp hearing the alarm, gets up, 
and, with some Of his clothes on, and some off, comes into 
my chamber. We are all undone, says he, the roundheads 
are upon us. We had but little time to consult ; but being in 
one of the principal inns in the town, we presently ordered 
the gates of the inn to be shut, and sent to all the inns where 
our men were quartered to do the like, with orders, if they 
had any back-doors, or ways to get out, to come to us. By 
this means, however, we got so much time as to get on horse- 
back, and so many of our men came to us by back-ways, that 
we had near three hundred horse in the yards and places 
behind the house ; and now we began to think of breaking 
out by a lane which led from the back part of the inn ; but 
a new accident determined us another, though a worse way. 
The enemy being entered, and our men cooped up in the yards 
of the inns, Colonel Spencer, the other colonel, whose regi- 
ment of horse lay also in the town, had got on horseback 
before us and engaged with the enemy, but being overpowered, 
retreated fighting, and sends to Sir Nicholas Crisp for help. 
Sir Nicholas, moved to see the distress of his friend, turning 
to me, says he, What can we do for him ? I told him I 

vol. 11. M 



162 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

thought it was time to help him, if possible ; upon which, 
opening the inn gates, we sallied out in very good order, about 
three hundred horse ; and several of the troops from other 
parts of the town joining us, we recovered Colonel Spencer, 
and charging home, beat back the enemy to their main body. 
But finding their foot drawn up in the church-yard, and seve- 
ral detachments moving to charge us, we retreated in as good 
order as we could. They did not think fit to pursue us, but 
they took all the carriages which were under the convoy of 
this party, and loaden with provisions and ammunition, and 
above five hundred of our horse. The foot shifted away 
as well as they could. Thus we made off in a shattered con- 
dition towards Farringdon, and so to Oxford, and I was very 
glad my regiment was not there. 

We had small rest at Oxford, or indeed anywhere else ; 
for the king was marched from thence, and we followed him. 
I was something uneasy at my absence from my regiment, 
and did not know how the king might resent it, which caused 
me to ride after them with all expedition. But the armies 
were engaged that very day at Newbury, and I came in too 
late. I had not behaved myself so as to be suspected of a 
wilful shunning the action; but a colonel of a regiment 
ought to avoid absence from his regiment in time of fight, be 
the excuse never so just, as carefully as he would a surprise 
in his quarters. The truth is, it was an error of my own, 
and owing to two days' stay I made at the Bath, where I met 
with some ladies who were my relations ; and this is far from 
being an excuse ; for if the king had been a Gustavus Adol- 
phus, I had certainly received a check for it. 

This fight was very obstinate, and could our horse have 
come to action as freely as the foot, the parliament army had 
suffered much more ; for we had here a much better body of 
horse than they, and we never failed beating them where the 
weight of the work lay upon the horse. 

Here the city trained-bands, of which there were two 
regiments, and whom we used to despise, fought very well. 
They lost one of their colonels, and several officers in the 
action ; and I heard our men say, they behaved themselves 
as well as any forces the parliament had. 

The parliament cried victory here too, as they always did ; 
and, indeed, where the foot were concerned they had some 
advantage; but our horse defeated them evidently. The 



DEATH OP THE EARL OF CARNARVON. 163 

king drew up his army in battalia, in person, and faced them 
all the next day, inviting them to renew the fight, but they 
had no stomach to come on again. 

It was a kind of a hedge-fight, for neither army was 
drawn out in the field ; if it had, it would never have held 
from six in the morning till ten at night. But they fougli 
for advantages ; sometimes one side had the better, sometimes 
another. They fought twice through the town, in at one end, 
and out at the other, and in the hedges and lanes with 
exceeding fury. The king lost the most men, his foot having 
suffered for want of the succour of their horse, who, on two 
several occasions could not come at them. But the parlia- 
ment foot suffered also, and two regiments were entirely cut 
in pieces, and the king kept the field. 

Essex, the parliament general, had the pillage of the dead, 
and left us to bury them ; for while we stood all day to our 
arms, having given them a fair field to fight us in, their 
camp rabble stript the dead bodies, and they not daring to 
venture a second engagement with us, marched away towards 
London. 

The king lost in this action the Earls of Carnarvon and 
Sunderland, the Lord Falkland, a French marquis, and some 
very gallant officers, and about twelve hundred men. The 
Earl of Carnarvon was brought into an inn in Newbury, 
where the king came to see him. He had just life enough to 
speak to his majesty, and died in his presence. The king was 
exceedingly concerned for him, and was observed to shed 
tears at the sight of it. We were indeed all of us troubled 
for the loss of so brave a gentleman, but the concern our 
royal master discovered moved us more than ordinary. 
Everybody endeavoured to have the king out of the room, 
but he would not stir from the bed-side till he saw all hopes 
of life were gone. 

The indefatigable industry of the king, his servants and 
friends, continually to supply and recruit his forces, and to 
harass and fatigue the enemy, was such, that we should still 
have given a good account of the war, had the Scots stood 
neuter. But bad news came every day out of the north ; as 
for other places, parties were always in action ; Sir William 
Waller and Sir Ralph Hopton beat one another by turns ; 
and Sir Ralph had extended the king's quarters from 
Launceston in Cornwall, to Farnham in Surrey, where he 

m 2 



164 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

gave Sir William Waller a rub, and drove him into the 
castle. 

But in the north the storm grew thick, the Scots advanced 
to the borders, and entered England, in confederacy with the 
parliament, against their king; for which the parliament 
requited them afterwards as they deserved. 

Had it not been for the Scotch army, the parliament had 
easily been reduced to terms of peace ; but after this they 
never made any proposals fit for the king to receive. Want 
of success before had made them differ among themselves : 
Essex and Waller could never agree ; the Earl of Manchester 
and the Lord Willoughby differed to the highest degree ; and 
the king's aftairs went never the worse for it. But this 
storm in the north ruined us all ; for the Scots prevailed in 
Yorkshire, and being joined with Fairfax, Manchester, and 
Cromwell, carried all before them ; so that the king was 
obliged to send Prince Rupert, with a body of four thousand 
horse, to the assistance of the Earl of Newcastle, where that 
prince finished the destruction of the king's interest, by the 
rashest and unaccountablest action in^the world, of which I 
shall speak in its place. 

Another action of the king's, though in itself no greater a 
cause of offence than the calling the Scots into the nation, 
gave great offence in general, and even the king's own friends 
disliked it ; and was carefully improved by his enemies to 
the disadvantage of the king, and of his cause. 

The rebels in Ireland had, ever since the bloody massacre 
of the protestants, maintained a war against the English, 
and the Earl of Ormond was general and governor for the 
king. The king finding his affairs pinch him at home, sends 
orders to the Earl of Ormond to consent to a cessation of 
arms with the rebels, and to ship over certain of his regiments 
hither to his majesty's assistance. It is true, the Irish had 
deserved to be very illtreated by the English ; but while the 
parliament pressed the king with a cruel and unnatural war at 
home, and called in an army out of Scotland to support their 
quarrel with their king, I could never be convinced that it was 
such a dishonourable action for the king to suspend the 
correction of his Irish rebels, till he was in a capacity to do 
it with safety to himself, or to delay any farther assistance 
to preserve himself at home; and the troops he recalled 
being his own, it was no breach of his honour to make use 



THE KING BRINGS IRISH REGIMENTS OVER. 165 

of them, since he now wanted them for his own security, 
against those who fought against him at home. 

But the king was persuaded to make one step farther, and 
that, I confess, was unpleasing to us all ; and some of his 
best and most faithful servants took the freedom to speak 
plainly to him of it ; and that was, bringing some regiments 
of the Irish themselves over. This cast, as we thought, an 
odium upon our whole nation, being some of those very 
wretches who had dipt their hands in the innocent blood of 
the protestants, and, with unheard-of butcheries, had massa- 
cred so many thousands of English in cool blood. 

Abundance of gentlemen forsook the king upon this score ; 
and, seeing they could not brook the fighting in conjunction 
with this wicked generation, came into the declaration of the 
parliament, and making composition for their estates, lived 
retired lives all the rest of the war, or went abroad. 

But as exigencies and necessities oblige us to do things 
which at other times we would not do, and is, as to man, 
some excuse for such things ; so I cannot but think the 
guilt and dishonour of such an action must lie, very much of it at 
least, at their doors who drove the king to these necessities and 
distresses, by calling in an army of his own subjects, whom he 
had not injured, but had complied with them in everything, to 
make war upon him without any provocation. 

As to the quarrel between the king and his parliament, 
there may something be said on both sides ; and the king 
saw cause himself to disown and dislike some things he had 
done, which the parliament objected against, such as levying 
money without consent of parliament, infractions on their 
privileges, and the like. Here, I say, was some room for an 
argument, at least ; and concessions on both sides were need- 
ful to come to a peace ; but for the Scots, all their demands 
had been answered, all their grievances had been redressed, 
they had made articles with their sovereign, and he had per- 
formed those articles ; their capital enemy, episcopacy, was 
abolished ; they had not one thing to demand of the king 
which he had not granted; and, therefore, they had no more 
cause to take up arms against their sovereign, than they had 
against the grand signior. But it must for ever lie against 
them as a brand of infamy, and as a reproach on their whole 
nation, that, purchased by the parliament's money, they sold 
fhpir hrvnAsfrp-. ar.ri rebelled against th^r king for hire ; and it 



16G MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

was not many years before, as I have said already, they were 
tally paid the wages of their unrighteousness, and chastised 
for their treachery, by the very same people whom they thus 
basely assisted ; then they would have retrieved it, if it had 
not been to late. 

But I could not but accuse this age of injustice and parti- 
ality, who, while they reproached the king for his cessation 
of arms with the Irish rebels, and not prosecuting them with 
the utmost severity, though he was constrained by the 
necessities of the war to do it, could yet, at the same time, 
justify the Scots taking up arms in a quarrel they had no 
concern in, and against their own king, with whom they had 
articled and capitulated, and who had so punctually complied 
with all their demands, that they had no claim upon him, no 
grievances to be redressed, no oppression to cry out of, nor 
could ask anything of him which he had not granted. 

But as no action in the world is so vile, but the actors can 
cover with some specious pretence, so the Scots, now passing 
into England, publish a declaration, to justify their assisting 
the parliament : to which I shall only say, in my opinion, it 
was no justification at all ; for, admit the parliament's quarrel 
had been never so just, it could not be just in them to aid 
them, because it was against their own king too, to whom 
they had sworn allegiance, or at least had crowned him, and 
thereby had recognised his authority ; for if mal-administra- 
tion be, according to Prynne's doctrine, or according to their 
own Buchanan, a sufficient reason for subjects to take up arms 
against their prince, the breach of his coronation oath being 
supposed to dissolve the oath of allegiance, which, however, 
I cannot believe ; yet this can never be extended to make it 
lawful, that because a King of England may, by mal-adminis- 
tration, discharge the subjects of England from their allegiance, 
that therefore the subjects of Scotland may take up arms 
against the King of Scotland, he having not infringed 
the compact of government as to them, and they having 
nothing to complain of for themselves : thus I thought their 
own arguments were against them, and heaven seemed to 
concur with it ; for although they did carry the cause for the 
English rebels, yet the most of them left their bones here in 
the quarrel. 

But what signifies reason to the drum and the trumpet. 
The parliament had the supreme argument with those men, 



THE SCOTS ENTER ENGLAND. 



1G7 



viz., the money ; and having accordingly advanced a good 
round sum, upon payment of this (for the Scots would not 
stir a foot without it), they entered England on the 15th of 
January, 1643, with an army of twelve thousand men, under 
the command of old Lesley, now Earl of Leven, an old soldier 
of great experience, having been bred to arms from a youth, 
in the service ol the Prince of Orange. 

The Scots were no sooner entered England, but they were 
joined by all the friends to the parliament party in the north; 
and first, Colonel Grey, brother to the Lord Grey, joined 
them with a regiment of horse, and several out of Westmore- 
land and Cumberland, and so they advanced to Newcastle, 
which they summoned to surrender. The Earl of Newcastle, 
who rather saw than was able to prevent this storm, was in 
Newcastle, and did his best to defend it; but the Scots, 
increased by this time to above twenty thousand, lay close 
siege to the place, which was but meanly fortified ; and having 
repulsed the garrison upon several sallies, and pressing the 
place very close ; after a siege of twelve days, or thereabouts, 
they enter the town sword in hand. The Earl of Newcastle 
got away, and afterwards gathered what forces together he 
could ; but not strong enough to hinder the Scots from advanc- 
ing to Durham, which he quitted to them, nor to hinder the 
conjunction of the Scots with the forces of Fairfax, Manchester, 
and Cromwell. Whereupon the Earl seeing all things thus 
going to wreck, he sends his horse away and retreats with his 
foot into York, making all necessary preparations for a 
vigorous defence there, in case he should be attacked, which 
he was pretty sure of, as indeed afterwards happened. York 
was in a very good posture of defence ; the fortifications very 
regular, and exceeding strong ; well furnished with provisions : 
and had now a garrison of twelve thousand men in it. The 
governor under the Earl of Newcastle was Sir Thomas 
Grlenham, a good soldier, and a gentleman brave enough. 

The Scots, as I have said, having taken Durham, Tyne- 
mouth Castle, and Sunderland, and being joined by Sir Thomas 
Fairfax, who had taken Selby, resolve, with their united 
strength, to besiege York ; but when they came to view the 
city, and saw a plan of the works, and had intelligence of the 
strength of the garrison, they sent expresses to Manchester 
and Cromwell for help, who came on, and joined them with 



168 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

nine thousand, making together about thirty thousand men, 
rather more than less. 

Now had the Earl of Newcastle's repeated messengers 
convinced the king, that it was absolutely necessary to send 
some forces to his assistance, or else all would be lost in the 
north. Whereupon Prince Rupert was detached with orders 
first to go into Lancashire, and relieve Latham-house, defended 
by the brave Countess of Derby ; and then, taking all the 
forces he could collect in Cheshire, Lancashire, and York- 
shire, to march to relieve York. 

The prince marched from Oxford with but three regiments 
of horse, and one of dragoons, making in all about two 
thousand eight hundred men. The colonels of horse were 
Colonel Charles Goring, the Lord Biron, and myself; the 
dragoons were of Colonel Smith. In our march, we were 
joined by a regiment of horse from Banbury, one of dragoons 
from Bristol, and three regiments of horse from Chester : so 
that when we came into Lancashire we were about five 
thousand horse and dragoons. These horse we received from 
Chester were those who having been at the siege of 
Nantwich were obliged to raise the siege by Sir Thomas 
Fairfax ; and the foot having yielded, the horse made good 
their retreat to Chester, being about two thousand ; of whom 
three regiments now joined us. 

We received also two thousand foot from West Chester, 
and two thousand more out of Wales ; and with this strength 
we entered Lancashire. We had not much time to spend, 
and a great deal of work to do. 

Bolton and Liverpool felt the first fury of our prince. At 
Bolton, indeed, he had some provocation ; for here we were 
like to be beaten off. When first the prince came to the 
town, he sent a summons to demand the town for the king, 
but received no answer but from their guns, commanding the 
messenger to keep off at his peril. They had raised some 
works about the town; and having by their intelligence 
learned that we had no artillery, and were only a flying 
party, so they called us, they contemned the summons, and 
showed themselves upon their ramparts ready for us. The 
prince was resolved to humble them, if possible, and takes up 
his quarters close to the town. In the evening, he orders 
me to advance with one regiment of dragoons, and my horse. 



ATTACK UPON BOLTON, LANCASHIRE. 169 

to bring them off, if occasion was, and to post myself as 
near as possibly I could to the lines, yet so as not to be 
discovered; and at the same time having concluded what 
part of the works to fall upon, he draws up his men on two 
other sides, as if he would storm them there ; and on a 
signal, I was to begin the real assault on my side, with my 
dragoons. I had got so near the town with my dragoons, 
making them creep upon their bellies a great way, that we 
could hear the soldiers talk on the walls, when the prince, 
believing one regiment would be too few, sends me word, 
that he had ordered a regiment of foot to help, and that I 
should not discover myself till they were come up to me. 
This broke our measures ; for the march of this regiment 
was discovered by the enemy, and they took the alarm. 
Upon this I sent to the prince, to desire he would put off 
the storm for that night, and I would answer for it the next 
day; but the prince was impatient, and sent orders we should 
fall on as soon as the foot came up* to us. The foot marched 
out of the way, missed us, and fell in with the road that 
leads to another part of the town ; and being not able to 
find us, make an attack upon the town themselves ; but the 
defendants being ready for them, received them very warmly, 
and beat them off with great loss. I was at a loss now 
what to do ; for hearing the guns, and by the noise knowing 
it was an assault upon the town, I was very uneasy to have 
my share in it ; but as I had learnt under the king of Sweden 
punctually to adhere to the execution of orders, and my 
orders being to lie still till the foot came up with me, I would 
not stir if I had been sure to have done never so much 
service ; but however, to satisfy myself, I sent to the prince 
to let him know that I continued in the same place, expecting 
the foot, and none being yet come, I desired farther orders. 
The prince was a little amazed at this; and finding there 
must be some mistake, came galloping away in the dark to 
the place, and drew off the men ; which was no hard matter, 
for they were willing enough to give it over. 

As for me, the prince ordered me to come off so privately, 
as not to be discovered if possible, which I effectually did : 
and so we were baulked for that night. The next day the 
prince fell on upon another quarter with three regiments of 
foot, but was beaten off with loss ; and the like a third time. 
At last, the prince resolved to carry it, doubled his numbers, 






170 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

and renewing the attack with fresh men, the foot entered the 
town over their works, killing, in the first heat of the action, 
all that came in their way ; some ol the foot at the same time 
letting in the horse ; and so the town was entirely won. 
There was about six hundred of the enemy killed, and we 
lost above four hundred in all, which was owing to the 
foolish mistakes we made. Our men got some plunder here, 
which the parliament made a great noise about ; but it was 
their due, and they bought it dear enough. 

Liverpool did not cost us so much, nor did we get so much 
by it, the people having sent their women and children, and 
best goods, on board the ships in the road ; and as we had 
no boats to board them with, we could not get at them. 
Here, as at Bolton, the town and fort was taken by storm, 
and the garrison were many of them cut in pieces, which, by 
the way, was their own faults. 

Our next step was Latham-house, which the Countess of 
Derby had gallantly defended above eighteen weeks, against 
the parliament forces ; and this lady not only encouraged her 
men by her cheerful and noble maintenance of them, but by 
examples of her own undaunted spirit, exposing herself upon 
the walls in the midst of the enemy's shot, would be with 
her men in the greatest dangers ; and she well deserved our 
care of her person; for the enemy were prepared to use her 
very rudely, if she fell into their hands. 

Upon our approach, the enemy drew off; and the prince 
not only effectually relieved this vigorous lady, but left her 
a good quantity of all sorts of ammunition, three great guns, 
five hundred arms, and two hundred men, commanded by a 
major, as her extraordinary guard. 

Here the way being now opened, and our success answer- 
ing our expectation, several bodies of foot came into us from 
Westmoreland, and from Cumberland ; and here it was that 
the prince found means to surprise the town of Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne, which was recovered for the king, by the 
management of the mayor of the town, and some loyal 
gentlemen of the country, and a garrison placed there again 
for the king. 

But our main design being the relief of York, the prince 
advanced that way apace, his army still increasing; and 
being joined by the Lord Goring, from Kichmondshire, with 
four thousand horse, which were the same the Earl of 



ACCOMPLISH THE RELIEF OP YORK. 171 

Newcastle had sent away when he threw himself into 
York with the infantry. We were now eighteen thousand 
effective men, whereof ten thousand horse and dragoons ; so 
the prince, lull of hopes, and his men in good heart, boldly 
marched directly for York. 

The Scots, as much surprised at the taking of Newcastle, 
as at the coming of their enemy, began to inquire which way 
they should get home if they should be beaten ; and calling a 
council of war, they all agreed to raise the siege. The 
prince, who drew with him a great train of carriages charged 
with provision and ammunition, for the relief of the city, like 
a wary general, kept at a distance from the enemy, and 
fetching a great compass about, brings all safe into the city, 
and enters into York himself with all his army. 

No action of this whole war had gained the prince so 
much honour, or the king's affairs so much advantage as 
this, had the prince but had the power to have restrained 
his courage after this, and checked his fatal eagerness for 
fighting. Here was a siege raised, the reputation of the 
enemy justly stirred, a city relieved and furnished with all 
things necessary, in the face of an army, superior in number 
by near ten thousand men, and commanded by a triumvirate 
of Generals Leven, Fairfax, and Manchester. Had the 
prince but remembered the proceeding of the great duke of 
Parma at the relief of Paris, he would have seen the relieving 
the city was his business ; it was the enemy's business to 
fight, if possible ; it was his to avoid it ; for having delivered 
the city, and put the disgrace of raising the siege upon the 
enemy, he had nothing farther to do, but to have waited till 
he had seen what course the enemy would take, and taken 
his farther measures from their motion. 

But the prince, a continual friend to precipitant counsels, 
would hear no advice ; I entreated him not to put it to the 
hazard ; I told him, that he ought to consider, if he lost the 
day, he lost the kingdom, and took the crown off from the 
king's head. I put him in mind that it was impossible those 
three generals should continue long together; and that, if 
they did, they would not agree long in their counsels ; which 
would be as well for us as their separating. It was plain 
Manchester and Cromwell must return to the associated 
counties, who would not sutler them to stay, for fear the 
king should attempt them ; that he could subsist well enough, 



172 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

having York city and river at his back ; but the Scots would 
eat up the country, make themselves odious, and dwindle 
away to nothing, if he would but hold them at bay a little ; 
other general officers were of the same mind ; but all I could 
say, or they either, to a man deaf to anything but his own 
courage, signified nothing. He would draw out and fight, 
there was no persuading him to the contrary, unless a man 
would run the risk of being upbraided with being a coward, 
and afraid of the work. The enemy's army lay on a large 
common, called Marston-moor, doubtful what to do. Some 
were for fighting the prince, the Scots were against it, being 
uneasy at having the garrison of Newcastle at their backs ; 
but the prince brought their councils of war to a result ; for 
he let them know they must fight him, whether they would 
or no ; for the prince being, as before, eighteen thousand 
men, and the Earl of Newcastle having joined him with eight 
thousand foot out of the city, were marched in quest of the 
enemy ; had entered the moor in view of their army, and began 
to draw up in order of battle ; but the night coming on, the 
armies only viewed each other at a distance for that time. 
We lay all night upon our arms, and with the first of the day 
were in order of battle ; the enemy was getting ready, but 
part of Manchester's men were not in the field, but lay about 
three miles off, and made a hasty march to come up. 

The prince's army was exceedingly well managed ; he 
himself commanded the left wing, the Earl of Newcastle the 
right wing ; and the Lord Goring, as general of the foot, 
assisted by Major-general Porter and Sir Charles Lucas, led 
the main battle. I had prevailed with the prince, according 
to the method of the King of Sweden, to place some small 
bodies of musketeers in the intervals of his horse, in the left 
wing, but could not prevail upon the Earl of Newcastle to 
do it in the right ; which he afterwards repented. In this 
posture we stood facing the enemy, expecting they would 
advance to us, which at last they did ; and the prince began 
the day by saluting them with his artillery, which being 
placed very well, galled them terribly for a quarter of an 
hour ; they could not shift their front, so they advanced the 
hastier to get within our great guns, and consequently out of 
their danger, which brought the fight sooner on. 

The enemy's army was thus ordered ; Sir Thomas Fairfax 
had the right wing, in which was the Scots' horse, and the 



DISASTROUS ACTION WITH CROMWELL. 173 

horse of his own and his father's army ; Cromwell led the left 
wing, with his own and the Earl of Manchester's horse ; and 
the three generals, Lesley, old Fairfax, and Manchester, led 
the main battle. 

The prince, with our left wing, fell on first, and, with his 
usual fury, broke, like a clap of thunder, into the right wing 
of the Scots' horse, led by Sir Thomas Fairfax, and as 
nothing could stand in his way, he broke through and through 
them, and entirely routed them, pursuing them quite out of 
the field. Sir Thomas Fairfax, with a regiment of lances, 
and about five hundred of his own horse, made good the 
ground for some time ; but our musketeers, which, as I said, 
were placed among our horse, were such an unlooked-for 
sort of an article, in a fight among the horse, that those 
lances, which otherwise were brave fellows, were mowed 
down with their shot, and all was put into confusion. Sir 
Thomas Fairfax was wounded in the face, his brother killed, 
and a great slaughter was made of the Scots, to whom, I 
confess, we showed no favour at all. 

While this was doing on our left, the Lord G-oring, with 
the main battle, charged the enemy's foot ; and particularly 
one brigade, commanded by Major-general Porter, being 
mostly pikemen, not regarding the fire of the enemy, charged 
with that fury in a close body of pikes, that they overturned 
all that came in their way, and breaking into the middle of 
the enemy's foot, filled all with terror and confusion, inso- 
much that the three generals thinking all had been lost, fled, 
and quitted the field. 

But matters went not so well with that always unfortunate 
gentleman, the Earl of Newcastle, and our right wing of 
horse ; for Cromwell charged the Earl of Newcastle with a 
powerful body of horse ; and though the earl, and those about 
him, did what men could do, and behaved themselves with 
all possible gallantry, yet there was no withstanding Crom- 
well's horse ; but, like Prince Rupert, they bore down all 
before them ; and now the victory was wrung out of our 
hands by our own gross miscarriage ; for the prince, as it was 
his custom, too eager in the chase of the enemy, was gone, 
and could not be heard of; the foot in the centre, the right 
wing of the horse being routed by Cromwell, was left, and 
without the guard of his horse. Cromwell having routed 
the Earl of Newcastle, and beaten him q^uite out of the field, 



174 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. 

and Sir Thomas Fairfax rallying his dispersed troops, they 
tail all together upon the foot. General Lord Goring, like 
himself, fought like a lion ; but forsaken of his horse, was 
hemmed in on all sides, and overthrown ; and an hour after 
this, the prince, returning too late to recover his friends, was 
obliged with the rest to quit the field to conquerors. 

This was a iatal day to the king's aiFairs, and the risk too 
much tor any man in his wits to run ; we lost four thousand 
men on the spot, three thousand prisoners, among whom 
was Sir Charles Lucas, Major-general Porter, Major-general 
Telier, and about one hundred and seventy gentlemen of 
quality. We lost all our baggage, twenty-five pieces of 
cannon, three huudred carriages, one hundred and fifty bar- 
rels of powder, and ten thousand arms. 

The prince got into York with the Earl of Newcastle, and 
a great many gentlemen, and seven or eight thousand of the 
men, as well horse as foot. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



NARROW ESCAPE FROM THE BATTLE DANCERS OF OUR 

RETREAT TWO OP OUR PARTY AND MYSELF DISGUISE 

OURSELVES, AND GO TO LEEDS TO LEARN NEWS 

ENGAGEMENT WITH THE COUNTRY FELLOWS ON OUR RE- 
TURN OUR PARTY ATTEMPTS TO JOIN PRINCE RUPERT 

ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD WE JOIN THE PRINCE AT 

KENDAL, IN WESTMORELAND. 

I had but very coarse treatment in this fight ; for returning 
with the prince from the pursuit of the right wing, and find- 
ing all lost, I halted, with some other officers, to consider 
what to do ; at first we were for making our retreat in a 
body, and might have done so well enough, if we had known 
what had happened before we saw ourselves in the middle of 
the enemy ; for Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had got together 
his scattered troops, and joined by some of the left wing, 
knowing who we were, charged us with great fury. It was 
not a time to think of anything but getting away, or dying 
upon the spot ; the prince kept on in the front, and Sir 
Thomas Fairfax, by this charge, cut off about three regiments 






SOME OF THE KING-'s TROOPS MUCH PERPLEXED. 175 

of us from our body, but bending his main strength at the 
prince, left us, as it were, behind him, in the middle of the 
field oi battle. We took this for the only opportunity we 
could have to get off, and joining together, we made across 
the place of battle in as good order as we could, with our 
carabines presented. In this posture we passed by several 
bodies of the enemy's foot, who stood with their pikes charged 
to keep us off; but they had no occasion, for we had no 
design to meddle with them, but to get from them. Thus we 
made a swift march, and thought ourselves pretty secure ; 
but our work was not done yet, for, on a sudden, we saw 
ourselves under a necessity of fighting our way through a 
great body oi Manchester's horse, who came galloping upon 
us over the moor. They had, as we suppose, been pursuing 
some of our broken troops which were fled before, and seeing 
us, they gave us a home charge. We received them as well 
as we could, but pushed to get through them, which at last 
we did with a considerable loss to them. However, we lost 
so many men, either killed or separated from us (for all 
could not follow the same way), that of our three regiments 
we could not be above four hundred horse together when we 
got quite clear, and these were mixt men, some of one troop 
and regiment, some of another. Not that I believe many of 
us were killed in the last attack, for we had plainly the better 
of the enemy; but our design being to get off, some shifted 
for themselves one way, and some another, in the best manner 
they could, and as their several fortunes guided them. Four 
hundred more of this body, as I afterwards understood, having 
broke through the enemy's body another way, kept together, 
and got into Pontefract Castle, and three hundred more made 
northward, and to Skip ton, where the prince afterwards 
fetched them off. 

These few of us that were left together, with whom I was, 
being now pretty clear of pursuit, halted, and began to 
inquire who and what we were, and what we should do ; and 
on a short debate, I proposed we should make to the first 
garrison of the king's that we could recover, and that we 
should keep together, lest the country-people should insult us 
upon the roads. With this resolution we pushed on west- 
ward for Lancashire ; but our misfortunes were not yet at an 
end : we travelled very hard, and got to a village upon the 
river Wharf, near Wetherby. At Wetherby there was a 



176 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

bridge, but we understood that a party from Leeds had 
secured the town and the post, in order to stop the flying 
cavaliers, and that it would be very hard to get through 
there, though, as we understood afterwards, there were no 
soldiers there but a guard of the townsmen. In this pickle 
we consulted what course to take ; to stay where we were 
till morning, we all concluded would not be safe; some 
advised to take the stream with our horses, but the river, 
which is deep, and the current strong, seemed to bid us have 
a care what we did of that kind, especially in the night. We 
resolved therefore to refresh ourselves and our horses, which 
indeed is more than we did, and go on till we might come to 
a ford or bridge, where we might get over. Some guides we 
had, but they either were foolish or false, for after we had 
rid eight or nine miles, they plunged us into a river at a place 
they called a ford, but it was a very ill one, for most of our 
horses swam, and seven or eight were lost, but we saved the 
men ; however, we got all over. 

We made bold with our first convenience to trespass upon 
the country for a few horses, where we could find them, to 
remount our men whose horses were drowned, and continued 
our march ; but being obliged to refresh ourselves at a small 
village on the edge of Bramham-moor, we found the country 
alarmed by our taking some horses, and we were no sooner 
got on horseback in the morning, and entering on the moor, 
but we understood we were pursued by some troops oi horse. 
There was no remedy but we must pass this moor ; and 
though our horses were exceedingly tired, yet we pressed on 
upon a round trot, and recovered an enclosed country on the 
other side, where we halted. And here, necessity putting us 
upon it, we were obliged to look out for more horses, for 
several of our men were dismounted, and others' horses dis- 
abled by carrying double, those who lost their horses getting 
up behind them ; but we were supplied by our enemies against 
their will. 

The enemy followed us over the moor, and we having a 
woody enclosed country about us, where we were, I observed 
by their moving, they had lost sight of us ; upon which I 
proposed concealing ourselves till we might judge of their 
numbers. We did so, and lying close in a wood, they past 
hastily by us, without skirting or searching the wood, which 
was what on another occasion they would not have done. I 



ENGAGE THE ENEMY IN A WOOD. 177 

found they were not above a hundred and fifty horse, and 
considering that to let them go before us, would be to alarm 
the country, and stop our design ; I thought, since we might 
be able to deal with them, we should not meet with a better 
place for it, and told the rest of our officers my mind, which 
all our party presently (for we had not time for a long debate) 
agreed to. Immediately upon this I caused two men to fire 
their pistols in the wood, at two different places, as far 
asunder as I could. This I did to give them an alarm, and 
amuse them ; for being in the lane, they would otherwise 
have got through before we had been ready, and I resolved 
to engage them there, as soon as it was possible. After this 
alarm, we rushed out of the wood, with about a hundred 
horse, and charged them on the flank in a broad lane, the 
wood being on their right. Our passage into the lane being 
narrow, gave us some difficulty in our getting out ; but the 
surprise of the charge did our work ; for the enemy thinking 
we had been a mile or two before, had not the least thoughts 
of this onset, till they heard us in the wood, and then they who 
were before could not come back. We broke into the lane 
just in the middle of them, and by that means divided them ; 
and facing to the left, charged the rear. First our dismounted 
men, which were near fifty, lined the edge of the wood, and 
fired with their carabines upon those which were before, so 
warmly, that they put them into a great disorder. Mean- 
while, fifty more of our horse from the farther part of the 
wood showed themselves in the lane upon their front ; this 
put them of the foremost party into a great perplexity, and 
they began to face about, to fall upon us who were engaged 
in the rear ; but their facing about in a lane where there was 
no room to wheel, and one who understands the manner of 
wheeling a troop of horse must imagine, put them into a 
great disorder. Our party in the head of the lane taking the 
advantage of this mistake of the enemy, charged in upon them, 
and routed them entirely. Some found means to break into 
the enclosures on the other side of the lane, and get away. 
About thirty were killed, and about twenty-five made pri- 
soners, and forty very good horses were taken; all this while 
not a man of ours was lost, and not above seven or eight 
wounded. Those in the rear behaved themselves better ; for 
they stood our charge with a great deal of resolution, and all 
we could do could not break them ; but at last our men, who 
VOL. II. N 



178 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

had fired on foot through the hedges at the other party, 
coming to do the like here, there was no standing it any- 
longer. The rear of them faced about, and retreated out of 
the lane, and drew up in the open field to receive and rally 
their fellows. We killed about seventeen of them, and fol- 
lowed them to the end of the lane, but had no mind to have 
any more fighting than needs musY ; our condition at that 
time not making it proper, the towns round us being all in 
the enemy's hands, and the country but indifferently pleased 
with us ; however, we stood facing them till they thought fit 
to march away. Thus we were supplied with horses enough 
to remount our men, and pursued our first design of getting 
into Lancashire. As for our prisoners, we let them off on 
foot. 

But the country being by this time alarmed, and the rout 
of our army everywhere known, we foresaw abundance of 
difficulties before us ; we were not strong enough to venture 
into any great towns, and we were too many to be concealed 
in small ones. Upon this we resolved to halt in a great wood, 
about three miles beyond the place where we had the last 
skirmish, and sent out scouts to discover the country, and 
learn what they could, either of the enemy or of our friends. 

Anybody may suppose we had but indifferent quarters here, 
either for ourselves or for our horses ; but, however, we made 
shift to lie here two days and one night. In the interim I 
took upon me, with two more, to go to Leeds to learn some 
news ; we were disguised like country ploughmen ; the clothes 
we got at a farmer's house, which for that particular occasion 
we plundered ; and I cannot say no blood was shed in a 
manner too rash, and which I could not have done at another 
time ; but our case was desperate, and the people too surly, 
and shot at us out of the window, wounded one man, and 
shot a horse, which we counted as great a loss to us as a man, 
for our safety depended upon our horses. Here we got 
clothes of all sorts, enough for both sexes, and thus dressing 
myself up a la paisant, with a white cap on my head, and a 
fork on my shoulder, and one of my comrade's in the farmer's 
wife's russet gown and petticoat, like a woman ; the other 
with an old crutch like a lame man, and all mounted on such 
horses as we had taken the day before from the country ; 
away we go to Leeds by three several ways, and agreed to 
meet upon the bridge. My pretended countrywoman acted 



VISIT LEEDS IN DISGUISE TO LEARN NEWS. 179 

her part to the life, though the party was a gentleman of 
good quality of the Earl of Worcester's family ; and the 
cripple did as well as he ; but I thought myself very awkward 
in my dress, which made me very shy, especially among the 
soldiers. We passed their sentinels and guards at Leeds un- 
observed, and put up our horses at several houses in the town, 
from whence we went up and down to make our remarks. 
My cripple was the fittest to go among the soldiers, because 
there was less danger of being pressed. There he informed 
himself of the matters of war, particularly that the enemy sat 
down again to the siege of York; that flying parties were in 
pursuit of the cavaliers ; and there he heard that five hundred 
horse of the Lord Manchester's men had followed a party of 
cavalier's over Bramham-moor ; and, that entering a lane, 
the cavaliers, who were a thousand strong, fell upon them, 
and killed them all but about fifty. This, though it was a lie, 
was very pleasant to us to hear, knowing it was our party, 
because 'of the other part of the story, which was thus; that 
the cavaliers had taken possession of such a wood, where 
they rallied all the troops of their flying army ; that they had 
plundered the country as they came, taking all the good 
horses they could get ; that they had plundered Goodman 
Thompson's house, which was the farmer I mentioned, and 
killed man, woman, and child ; and that they were about two 
thousand strong. 

My other friend in woman's clothes got among the good 
wives at an inn, where she set up her horse, and there she 
heard the same sad and dreadful tidings ; and that this party 
was so strong, none of the neighbouring garrisons durst stir 
out ; but that they had sent expresses to York for a party of 
horse to come to their assistance. 

I walked up and down the town, but fancied myself so 
ill-disguised, and so easy to be known, that I cared not to 
talk with anybody. We met at the bridge exactly at our 
time, and compared our intelligence, found it answered our 
end of coming, and that we had nothing to 4° but to get 
back to our men ; but my cripple told me he would not stir 
till he bought some victuals, so away he hops with his crutch, 
and buys four or five great pieces of bacon, as many of hung 
beef, and two or three loaves ; and, borrowing a sack at the 
inn (which I suppose he never restored), he loads his horse, 
and, getting a large leather bottle, he filled that of aqua vites 

N 2 



180 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

instead of small beer ; my woman comrade did the like. I 
was uneasy in my mind, and took no care but to get out of 
the town ; however, we all came off well enough ; but it 
was well for me that I had no provisions with me, as you 
will hear presently. We came, as I said, into the town by 
several ways, and so we went out ; but about three miles 
from the town we met again exactly where we had agreed. 
I being about a quarter of a mile from the rest, I met three 
country fellows on horseback ; one had a long pole on his 
shoulder, another a fork, the third no weapon at all, that I 
saw ; I gave them the road very orderly, being habited like 
one of their brethren ; but one of them stopping short at me, 
and looking earnestly, calls out, Hark thee, friend, says he, 
in a broad north-country tone, whar hast thou thilk horse ? 
I must confess I was in the utmost confusion at the question, 
neither being able to answer the question, nor to speak in his 
tone ; so I made as if I did not hear him, and went on. Na, 
but ye's not gang soa, says the boor, and comes up to me, 
and takes hold of the horse's bridle to stop me ; at which, 
vexed at heart that I could not tell how to talk to him, I 
reached him a great knock on the pate with my fork, and 
fetched him off his horse, and then began to mend my pace. 
The other clowns, though it seems they knew not what the 
fellow wanted, pursued me, and, finding they had better 
heels than I, I saw there was no remedy but to make use of 
my hands, and faced about. The first that came up with me 
was he that had no weapons, so I thought I might parley 
With him ; and, speaking as country-like as I could, I asked 
him what he wanted ? Thou'st knaw that soon, says York- 
shire, and I'se but come at thee. Then keep awa', man, said 
1 I, or I'se brain thee. By this time the third man came up, 
and the parley ended ; for he gave me no words, but laid at 
me with his long pole, and that with such fury, that I began 
to be doubtful of him. I was loath to shoot the fellow, 
though I had pistols under my grey frock, as well for that 
the noise of a pistol might bring more people in, the village 
being in our rear, and also because I could not imagine what 
the fellow meant, or would have; but at last, finding he 
would be too many for me with that long weapon, and a 
hardy strong fellow, I threw myself off my horse, and, 
running in with him, stabbed my fork into his horse ; the 
horse, being wounded, staggered awhile, and then fell down, 



ENGAGEMENT WITH THREE COUNTRY FELLOWS. 181 

and the booby had not the sense to get down in time, but 
fell with him ; upon which, giving him a knock or two with 
my fork, I secured him. The other, by this time, had fur- 
nished himself with a great stick out of a hedge, and, before 
I was disengaged from the last fellow, gave me two such 
blows, that if the last had not missed my head, and hit me 
on the shoulder, I had ended the fight and my life together. 
It was time to look about me now, for this was a madman ; 
I defended myself with my fork, but it would not do ; at 
last, in short, I was forced to pistol him, and get on horse- 
back again, and, with all the speed I could make, get away 
to the wood to our men. 

If my two fellow spies had not been behind, I had never 
known what was the meaning of this quarrel of the three 
countrymen, but my cripple had all the particulars ; for he 
being behind us, as I have already observed, when he came 
up to the first fellow, who began the fray, he found him 
beginning to come to himself; so he gets off, and pretends to 
help him, and sets him upon his breech, and, being a very 
merry fellow, talked to him, Well, and what's the matter 
now, says he to him ; Ah, wae's me, says the fellow, I'se 
killed ! Not quite, mon, says the cripple. O that's a fause 
thief, says he, and thus they parleyed. My cripple got him 
on his feet, and gave him a dram of his aqua vitaj bottle, 
and made much of him, in order to know what was the 
occasion of the quarrel. Our disguised woman pitied the 
fellow too, and together they set him up again upon his 
horse, and then he told them that that fellow was got upon 
one of his brother's horses who lived at Wetherby ; they 
said the cavaliers stole him, but it was like such rogues (no 
mischief could be done in the country, but it was the poor 
cavaliers must bear the blame), and the like ; and thus they 
jogged on till they came to the place where the other two 
lay. The first fellow they assisted as they had done the 
other, and gave him a dram out of the leather bottle ; but 
the last fellow was past their care ; so they came away. For 
when they understood that it was my horse they claimed, 
they began to be afraid that their own horses might be 
known too, and then they had been betrayed in a worse 
pickle than I, and must have been forced to have done some 
mischief or other to have got away. 

I had sent out two troopers to fetch them off, if there was 



182 ME3I0IRS OF A CAVALIER. 

any occasion ; but their stay "was not long, and the tw(, 
troopers saw them at a distance coming towards us, so they 
returned. 

I had enough of going for a spy, and my companions had 
enough of staying in the wood ; for other intelligences 
agreed with ours, and all concurred in this, that it was time 
to be going : however, this use we made of it, that, while 
the country thought us so strong, we were in the less danger 
of being attacked, though in the more of being observed ; 
but all this while we heard nothing of our friends, till the 
next day. We then heard Prince Rupert, with about a 
thousand horse, was at Skipton, and from thence marched 
away to Westmoreland. 

We concluded now we had two or three days' time good ; 
for, since messengers were sent to York for a party to sup- 
press us, we must have at least two days' march of them, and 
therefore all concluded we were to make the best of our way. 
Early in the morning, therefore, we decamped from those dull 
quarters ; and as we marched through a village, we found the 
people very civil to us, and the women cried out, " God bless 
them, it is a pity the roundheads should make such work with 
such brave men," and the like. Finding we were among our 
friends, we resolved to halt a little and refresh ourselves; 
and, indeed, the people were very kind to us, gave us victuals 
and drink, and took care of our horses. It happened to be 
my lot to stop at a house where the good woman took a great 
deal of pains to provide for us ; but I observed the good man 
walked about with a cap upon his head, and very much out 
of order. I took no great notice of it, being very sleepy, and 
having asked my landlady to let me have a bed, I lay down 
and slept heartily : when I waked, I found my landlord on 
another bed, groaning very heavily. 

When I came down stairs, I found my cripple talking with 
my landlady ; he was now out of his disguise, but we called 
him cripple still; and the other, who put on the woman's 
clothes, we called Goody Thompson. As soon as he saw me, 
he called me out; Do you know, says he, the man of the 
house you are quartered in ? No, not I, says I. No, so I 
believe, nor they you, says he ; if they did, the good wife 
would not have made you a posset, and fetched a white loaf 
for you. What do you mean ? says I. Have you seen the 
man ? says he. Seen him, says I, yes, and heard him too ; 



THE WOUNDED COUNTRYMAN MY LANDLORD. 183 

the man is sick, and groans so heavily, says I, that I could 
not lie upon the bed any longer for him. Why, this is the 
poor man, say he, that you knocked down with your fork 
yesterday, and I have had all the story out yonder at the next 
door. I confess it grieved me to have been forced to treat 
one so roughly who was one of our friends, but to make some 
amends, we contrived to give the poor man his brother's 
horse ; and my cripple told him a formal story, that he believed 
the horse was taken away from the fellow by some of our men ; 
and, if he knew him again, if it was his friend's horse, he 
should have him. The man came down upon the news, and 
I caused six or seven horses, which were taken at the same 
time, to be shown him ; he immediately chose the right ; so 
I gave him the horse, and we pretended a great deal of sorrow 
for the man's hurt ; and that we had not knocked the fellow 
on the head as well as took away the horse. The man was 
so overjoyed at the revenge he thought was taken on the 
fellow, that we heard him groan no more. We ventured to 
stay all day at this town, and the next night, and got guides 
to lead us to Blackstone-Edge, a ridge of mountains which 
parts this side of Yorkshire from Lancashire. Early in the 
morning we marched, and kept our scouts very carefully out 
every way, who brought us no news for this day : we kept on 
all night, and made our horses do penance for that little rest 
they had, and the next morning we passed the hills, and got 
into Lancashire, to a town called Littleborough, and from 
thence to Rochdale, a little market-town. And now we 
thought ourselves safe as to the pursuit of enemies from the 
side of York ; our design was to get to Bolton, but all the 
country was full of the enemy in flying parties, and how to 
get to Bolton we knew not. At last we resolved to send a 
messenger to Bolton ; but he came back and told us, he had, 
with lurking and hiding, tried all the ways that he thought 
possible, but to no purpose; for he could not get into the 
town. We sent another, and he never returned ; and some 
time after we understood he was taken by the enemy. At 
last one got into the town, but brought us word, they were 
tired out with constant alarms, had been straitly blocked up, 
and every day expected a siege, and therefore advised us 
either to go northward, where Prince Rupert and the Lord 
Goring ranged at liberty ; or to get over Warrington bridge, 
and so secure our retreat to Chester. This double direction 



184 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

divided our opinions ; I was for getting into Chester, both to 
recruit myself with horses and with money, both which I 
wanted, and to get refreshment, which we all wanted ; but 
the major part of our men were for the north. First, they 
said, there was their general, and it was their duty to the 
cause, and the king's interest obliged us to go where we could 
do best service ; and there were their friends, and every man 
might hear some news of his own regiment, for we belonged 
to several regiments ; besides, all the towns to the left of us 
were possessed by Sir William Brereton; Warrington and 
Northwich garrisoned by the enemy, and a strong party at 
Manchester ; so that it was very likely we should be beaten 
and dispersed before we could get to Chester. These reasons, 
and especially the last, determined us for the north, and we 
had resolved to march the next morning, when other intelli- 
gence brought us to more speedy resolutions. We kept our 
scouts continually abroad, to bring us intelligence of the 
enemy, whom we expected on our backs, and also to keep an 
eye upon the country ; for, as we lived upon them something 
at large, they were ready enough fo do us any ill turn, as it 
lay in their power. 

The first messenger that came to us, was from our friends 
at Bolton, to inform us, that they were preparing at Manchester 
to attack us. One of our parties had been as far as Stockport, 
on the edge of Cheshire, and was pursued by a party of the 
enemy, but got off by the help of the night. Thus all things 
looking black to the south, we had resolved to march north- 
ward in the morning, when one of our scouts from the side 
of Manchester assured us, Sir Thomas Middleton, with some 
of the parliament forces, and the country troops, making above 
twelve hundred men, were on their march to attack us, and 
would certainly beat up our quarters that night. Upon this 
advice we resolved to be gone ; and getting all things in 
readiness, we began to march about two hours before night ; 
and having gotten a trusty fellow for a guide, a fellow that 
we found was a friend to our side, he put a project into my 
head, which saved us all for that time ; and that was, to give 
out in the village, that we were marched back to Yorkshire, 
resolving to get into Pontefract Castle ; and accordingly he 
leads us out of the town the same way we came in ; and 
taking a boy with him, he sends the boy back just at night, 
and bade him say he saw us go up the hills at Blackston- 



ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD. 185 

Edge; and it happened very well; for this party were so 
sure of us, that they had placed four hundred men on the 
road to the northward, to intercept our retreat that way, and 
had left no way for us, as they thought, to get away, but back 
again. 

About ten o'clock at night they assaulted our quarters, but 
found we were gone ; and being informed which way, they 
followed upon the spur, and travelling all night, being moon- 
light, they found themselves the next day about fifteen miles 
east, just out of their way ; for we had, by the help of our 
guide, turned short at the foot of the hills, and through blind, 
untrodden paths, and with difficulty enough, by noon the 
next day, had reached almost twenty-five miles north, near a 
town called Clithero. Here we halted in the open field, and 
sent out our people to see how things were in the country. 
This part of the country, almost unpassable, and walled 
round with hills, was indifferent qujet ; and we got some re- 
freshment for ourselves, but very little horse meat, and so 
went on ; but we had not marched far before we found our- 
selves discovered ; and the four hundred horse sent to lie in 
wait for us as before, having understood which way we went, 
followed us hard ; and, by letters to some of their friends at 
Preston, we found we were beset again. Our guide began 
now to be out of his knowledge ; and our scouts brought us 
word, the enemy' s horse was posted before us ; and we knew they 
were in our rear. In this exigence, we resolved to divide our 
small body, and so amusing them, at least one might get off, 
if the other miscarried. I took about eighty horse with me, 
among which were all that I had of my own regiment, 
amounting to above thirty-two, and took the hills towards 
Yorkshire. Here we met with such unpassable hills, vast moors, 
rocks, and stony ways, as lamed all our horses, and tired our 
men ; and sometimes I was ready to think we should never 
be able to get over them, till our horses failing, and jack- 
boots being but indifferent things to travel in, we might be 
starved before we should find any road or towns, for guide 
we had none, but a boy who knew but little, and would cry 
when we asked him any questions. I believe neither men 
nor horses ever passed in some places where we went, and 
for twenty hours we * saw not a town nor a house, excepting 
sometimes from the top of the mountains, at a vast distance. 
I am persuaded we might have encamped here, if we had had 



186 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

provisions, till the war had been oyer, and have met with no 
disturbance; and I have often wondered since, how we got 
into such horrible places, as much as how we got out. That 
which was worse to us than all the rest was, that we knew 
not where we were going, nor what part of the country we 
should come into, when we came out of those desolate crags. 
At last, after a terrible fatigue, we began to see the western 
parts of Yorkshire, some few villages, and the country at a 
distance looked a little like England; for I thought before it 
looked like old Brennus hill, which the Grisons call the 
grandfather of the Alps. We got some relief in the villages, 
which indeed some of us had so much need of, that they 
were hardly able to sit their horses, and others were forced 
to help them off, they were so faint. I never felt so much 
of the power of hunger in my life, for having not eaten in 
thirty hours, I was as ravenous as a hound ; and if I had 
had a piece of horseflesh, I believe I should not have had 
patience to have stayed dressing it, but have fallen upon it 
raw, and have eaten it as greedily as a Tartar. 

However, I eat very cautiously, having often seen the dan- 
ger of men's eating heartily after long fasting. Our next care 
was to inquire our way. Halifax, they told us, was on our 
right ; there we durst not think of going ; Skipton was before 
us, and there we knew not how it was ; for a body of three 
thousand horse, sent out by the enemy in pursuit of Prince 
Rupert, had been there but two days before, and the country 
people could not tell us, whether they were gone or no ; and 
Manchester's horse, which were sent out after our party, 
were then at Halifax, in quest of us, and afterwards marched 
into Cheshire. In this distress we would have hired a guide, 
but none of the country people would go with us ; for the 
roundheads would hang them, they said, when they came there. 
Upon this I called a fellow to me, Harkye friend, says I, dost thee 
know the way so as to bring us into Westmoreland, and not 
keep the great road from York ? Ay marry, says he, I ken 
the ways weel enou. And you would go and guide us, said 
I, but that you are afraid the roundheads will hang you ? 
Indeed would I, says the fellow. Why then, says I, thou 
hadst as good be hanged by a roundhead as a cavalier ; for, 
if thou will not go, I'll hang thee just now. Na, and ye 
serve me soa, says the fellow, I'se ene gang with ye ; for I 
care not for hanging ; and ye'll get me a good horse, I'se 



FALL IN WITH AN EXCELLENT GUIDE. 187 

gang and be one* of ye, for I'll nere come heame more. This 
pleased us still better, and we mounted the fellow, for three 
of our men died that night with the extreme fatigue of the 
last service. 

Next morning, when our new trooper was mounted and 
clothed, we hardly knew him ; and this fellow led us by such 
ways, such wildernesses, and yet with such prudence, keep- 
ing the hills to the left, that we might have the villages to re- 
fresh ourselves, that without him, we had certainly either 
perished in those mountains, or fallen into the enemy's hands. 
We passed the great road from York so critically as to time, 
that from one of the hills he showed us a party of the enemy's 
horse, who were then marching into "Westmoreland. We 
lay still that day, finding we were not discovered by them ; 
and our guide proved the best scout that we could have had; 
for he would go out ten miles at a time, and bring us in all 
the news of the country. Here he brought us word, that 
York was surrendered upon articles, and that Newcastle, 
which had been surprised by the king's party, was besieged 
by another army of Scots, advanced to help their brethren. 

Along the edges of those vast mountains we past, with the 
help of our guide, till we came into the forest of Swale ; and 
finding ourselves perfectly concealed here, for no soldier had 
ever been here all the war, nor perhaps would not, if it had 
lasted seven years, we thought we wanted a few days rest, at 
least for our horses, so we resolved to halt, and while we did 
so, we made some disguises, and sent out some spies into the 
country ; but, as here were no great towns, nor no post road, 
we got very little intelligence. We rested four days, and 
then marched again; and, indeed, having no great stock of 
money about us, and not very free of that we had, four days 
was enough for those poor places to be able to maintain us. 

We thought ourselves pretty secure now ; but our chief 
care was, how to get over those terrible mountains; for, 
having passed the great road that leads from York to Lan- 
caster, the crags, the farther northward we looked, looked 
still the worse, and our business was all on the other side. 
Our guide told us he would bring us out if we would have 
patience, which we were obliged to, and kept on this slow 
march till he brought us to Stanhope, in the county of Dur- 
ham, where some of Goring's horse, and two regiments of 
foot had their quarters. This was nineteen days from the 



188 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 



battle of Marston-moor. The prince, who was then at Ken 
dal, in Westmoreland, and who had given me over as lost, 
when he had news of our arrival, sent an express to me to 
meet him at Appleby. I went thither accordingly, and gave 
him an account of our journey, and there I heard the short 
history of the other part of our men, whom we parted from 
in Lancashire. They made the best of their way north. 
They had two resolute gentlemen who commanded ; and 
being so closely pursued by the enemy, that they found them- 
selves under the necessity of fighting, they halted, and faced 
about, expecting the charge. The boldness of the action 
made the officer who led the enemy's horse (which it seems 
were the county horse only), afraid of them ; which they per- 
ceiving, taking the advantage of his fears, bravely advance, and 
charge them ; and, though they were above two hundred 
horse, they routed them, killed about thirty or forty, got some 
horses, and some money, and pushed on their march night 
and day ; but coming near Lancaster, they were so waylaid 
and pursued, that they agreed to separate, and shift every 
man for himself; many of them fell into the enemy's hands, 
some were killed attempting to pass through the river 
Lune ; some went back again, six or seven got to Bolton, 
and about eighteen got safe to Prince Rupert. 

The prince was in a better condition hereabouts than I 
expected ; he and my Lord Goring, with the help of Sir 
Marmaduke Langdale, and the gentlemen of Cumberland, 
had gotten a body of four thousand horse, and about six 
thousand foot; they had retaken Newcastle, Tinmouth, 
Durham, Stockton, and several towns of consequence from 
the Scots, and might have cut them out work enough still, if 
that base people, resolved to engage their whole interest to 
ruin their sovereign, had not sent a second army of ten thou- 
sand men under the Earl of Calendar, to help their first. 
These came and laid siege to Newcastle, but found more 
vigorous resistance now than they had done before. 

There were in the town Sir John Morley, the Lord 
Crawford, Lord Rea and Maxwell, Scots, and old soldiers, 
who were resolved their countrymen should buy the town 
very dear, if they had it ; and had it not been for our disaster 
at Marston-moor, they had never had it ; for Calendar finding 
he was not able to carry the town, sends to General Leven 
to come from the siege of York to help him. 






STATE OF THE PRINCE'S ARMY. 18S? 



CHAPTER XIV. 

STATE OF THE PRINCE'S ARMY SKIRMISHES — THE KING'S 

ARMY OBTAINS SOME PARTIAL SUCCESSES IN THE WEST 

THE ARMIES JOIN AT OXFORD FARTHER PROCEEDINGS 

BAD CONDUCT OF THE PARLIAMENT SOLDIERS NEGO- 
TIATIONS WITH THE PARLIAMENT FOR PEACE PROCEED- 
INGS OF THE DIVISION TO WHICH I BELONGED IN THE 
ARMY. 

Mean time the prince forms a very good army, and the 
Lord Goring, with ten thousand men, shows himself on the 
borders of Scotland, to try if that might not cause the Scots 
to recall their forces ; and, I am persuaded, had he entered 
Scotland, the parliament of Scotland had recalled the Earl of 
Calendar, for they had but five thousand men left in arms to 
send against him ; but they were loath to venture. 

However, this effect it had, that it called the Scots north- 
ward again, and found them work there for the rest of the 
summer, to reduce the several towns in the bishopric of 
Durham. 

I found with the prince the poor remains of my regiment, 
which, when joined with those that had been with me, could 
not all make up three troops, and but two captains, three 
lieutenants, and one cornet ; the rest were dispersed, killed, 
or taken prisoners. 

However, with those, which we still called a regiment, I 
joined the prince, and after having done all we could on that 
side, the Scots being returned from York, the prince returned 
through Lancashire to Chester. 

The enemy often appeared and alarmed us, and once fell 
on one of our parties, and killed us about a hundred men ; 
but we were too many for them to pretend to fight us, so we 
came to Bolton, beat the troops of the enemy near Warrington, 
where I got a cut with a halberd in my face, and arrived at 
Chester the begining of August. 

The parliament, upon their great success in the north, 
thinking the king's forces quite broken, had sent their general, 
Essex, into the west, where the king's army was commanded 



190 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

by Prince Maurice, Prince Rupert's elder brother, but not 
very strong; and the king being, as they supposed, by the 
absence of Prince Rupert, weakened so much as that he might 
be checked by Sir William Waller, who, with four thousand 
five hundred foot, and fifteen hundred horse, was at that time 
about Winchester, having lately beaten Sir Ralph Hopton. 
Upon all these considerations, the Earl of Essex marches 
westward. 

The forces in the west being too weak to oppose him, 
everything gave way to him, and all people expected he would 
besiege Exeter, where the queen was newly lying-in, and sent 
a trumpet to desire he would forbear the city, while she could 
be removed ; which he did, and passed on westward, took 
Tiverton, Biddeford, Barnstaple, Launceston, relieved Ply- 
mouth, drove Sir Richard Grenvil up into Cornwall, and 
followed him thither, but left Prince Maurice behind him with 
four thousand men about Barnstaple and Exeter. The king, 
in the mean time, marches from Oxford into Worcester, with 
Waller at his heels ; at Edgehill his majesty turns upon 
Waller, and gave him a brush, to put him in mind of the 
place ; the king goes on to Worcester, sends three hundred 
horse to relieve Durley Castle, besieged by the Earl of Denby, 
and sending part of his forces to Bristol, returns to Oxford. 

His majesty had now firmly resolved to march into the 
west, not having yet any account of our misfortunes in the 
north. Waller and Middleton waylay the king at Cropedy 
bridge. The king assaults Middleton at the bridge ; Waller's 
men were posted with some cannon to guard a pass ; Middle- 
ton's men put a regiment of the king's foot to the rout, and 
pursued them. Waller's men, willing to come in for the 
plunder, a thing their general had often used them to, quit 
their post at the pass, and their great guns, to have part in 
the victory. The king coming in seasonably to the relief of 
his men, routs Middleton, and at the same time sends a party 
round, who clapt in between Sir William Waller's men and 
their great guns, and secured the pass and the cannon too. 

The king took three colonels, besides other officers, and 
about three hundred men prisoners, with eight great guns, 
nineteen carriages of ammunition, and killed about two hun- 
dred men. 

Waller lost his reputation in this fight, and was exceedingly 
slighted ever after, even by his own party ; but especially 



PARLIAMENT ARMY APPLY FOR HELP. 191 

by such as were of General Essex's party, between whom 
and Waller there had been jealousies and misunderstandings 
for some time. 

The king, about eight thousand strong, marched on to 
Bristo 1 where Sir William Hopton joined him, 'and from 
theiice hi; follows Essex into Cornwall ; Essex still following 
Grenvil, the king comes to Exeter, and joining with Prince 
Maurice, resolves to pursue Essex ; and now the Earl of 
Essex began to see his mistake, being cooped up between two 
seas, the king's army in his rear, the country his enemy, and 
Sir Richard Grenvil in his van. 

The king, who always took the best measures when he was 
left to his own counsel, wisely refuses to engage, though 
superior in number, and much stronger in horse. Essex 
often drew out to fight, but the king fortifies, takes the passes 
and bridges, plants cannon, and secures the country to keep 
off provisions, and continually strengthens their quarters, but 
would not fight. 

Now Essex sends away to the parliament for help, and 
they write to Waller, and Middleton, and Manchester to 
follow, and come up with the king in his rear ; but some 
were too far off, and could not, as Manchester and Fairfax ; 
others made no haste, as having no mind to it, as Waller and 
Middleton, and if they had, it had been too late. 

At last the Earl of Essex finding nothing to be done, and 
unwilling to fall into the kings hands, takes shipping, and 
leaves his army to shift for themselves. The horse, under 
Sir William Balfour, the best horse officer, and, without com- 
parison, the bravest in all the parliament army, advanced in 
small parties, as if to skirmish, but falling in with the whole 
body, being three thousand five hundred horse, broke through, 
and got off. Though this was a loss to the king's victory, 
yet the foot were now in a condition so much the worse.' 
Brave old Skippon proposed to fight through with the foot 
and die, as he called it, like Englishmen, with sword in hand ; 
but the rest of the officers shook their heads at it : for, being 
well paid, they had at present no occasion for dying. 

Seeing it thus, they agreed to treat, and the king grants 
them conditions, upon laying down their arms, to march off 
free. This was too much ; had his majesty but obliged them 
upon oath not to serve again for a certain time, he had done 
his business; but this was not thought of; so they passed 



192 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

free, only disarmed, the soldiers not being allowed so much 
as their swords. 

The king gained by this treaty forty pieces of cannon, all 
of brass, three hundred barrels of gunpowder, nine thousand 
arms, eight thousand swords, match and bullet in proportion, 
two hundred waggons, one hundred and fifty colours and 
standards, all the bag and baggage of the army, and about one 
thousand of the men listed in his army. This was a complete 
victory without bloodshed; and, had the king but secured 
the men from serving but for six months, it had most effec- 
tually answered the battle of Marston-moor. 

As it was, it infused new life into all his majesty's forces 
and friends, and retrieved his affairs very much ; but 
especially it encouraged us in the north, who were more 
sensible of the blow received at Marston-moor, and of the 
destruction the Scots were bringing upon us all. 

While I was at Chester, we had some small skirmishes 
with Sir. William Brereton. One morning in particular Sir 
William drew up, and faced us, and one of our colonels of 
horse observing the enemy to be not," as he thought, above two 
hundred, desires leave of Prince Rupert to attack them with 
a like number ^ and accordingly he sallied out with two 
hundred horse. I stood drawn up without the city with 
eight hundred more, ready to bring him off, if he should be 
put to the worst, which happened accordingly ; for, not 
having discovered neither the country nor the enemy as he 
ought, Sir William Brereton drew him into an ambuscade ; 
so that before he came up with Sir William's forces, near 
enough to charge, he finds about three hundred horse in his 
rear. Though he was surprised at this, yet, being a man of 
a ready courage, he boldly faces about with a hundred and 
fifty of his men, leaving the other fifty to face Sir William. 
With this small party, he desperately charges the three 
hundred horse in his rear, and putting them into disorder, 
breaks through them, and, had there been no greater force, 
he had cut them all in pieces. Flushed with this success, 
and loath to desert the fifty men he had left behind, he faces 
about again, and charges through them again, and with these 
two charges entirely routs them. Sir William Brereton finding 
himself a little disappointed, advances, and falls upon the fifty 
men just as the colonel came up to them ; they fought him 
with a great deal of bravery, but the colonel being unfor- 



THE KINGS ARMY MORE SUCCESSFUL. 193 

tunateLy killed in the first charge, the men gave way, and 
came flying all in confusion, with the enemy at their heels. 
"As soon as I saw this, I advanced, according to my orders, 
and the enemy, as soon as I appeared, gave over the pursuit. 
This gentleman, as I remember, was Colonel Marrow ; we 
fetched off his body, and retreated into Chester. 

The next morning the prince drew out of the city with 
about twelve hundred horse and two thousand foot, and 
attacked Sir William Brereton in his quarters. The fight 
was very sharp for the time, and near seven hundred men, on 
both sides, were killed ; but Sir William would not put it to 
a general engagement, so the prince drew off, contenting 
himself to have insulted him in his quarters. 

We now had received orders from the king to join him ; 
but I representing to the prince the condition of my regiment, 
which was now a hundred men, and, that being within twenty- 
five miles of my father's house, I might soon recruit it, my 
father having got some men together already, I desired leave 
to lie at Shrewsbury for a month, to make up my men. 
Accordingly, having obtained his leave, I marched to Wrex- 
ham, where, in two days' time I got twenty men, and so on 
to Shrewsbury. I had not been here above ten days, but I 
received an express to come away with what recruits I had 
got together, Prince Rupert having positive orders to meet 
the king by a certain day. I had not mounted a hundred 
men, though I had listed above two hundred, when these 
orders came ; but leaving my father to complete them for me, 
I marched with those I had, and came to Oxford. 

The king, after the rout of the parliament forces in the 
west, was marched back, took Barnstaple, Plympton, Laun- 
ceston, Tiverton, and several other places, and left Plymouth 
besieged by Sir Richard G-renvil ; met with Sir William 
Waller at Shaftesbury, and again at Andover, and boxed him 
at both places, and marched for Newbury. Here the king 
sent for Prince Rupert to meet him, who, with three thousand 
horse, made long marches to join him ; but the parliament 
have joined their three armies together, Manchester from 
the north, Waller, and Essex, the men being clothed and 
armed, from the west, they attacked the king, and obliged 
him to fight the day before the prince came up. 

The king had so posted himself, as that he could not be 
obliged to fight but with advantage ; the parliament's forces 

VOL. II. 



194 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

being superior in number, and therefore, when they attacked 
him, he galled them with his cannon, and declining to come 
to a general battle, stood upon the defensive, expecting Prince 
Rupert with the horse. 

The parliament's forces had some advantage over our foot, 
and took the Earl of Cleveland prisoner ; but the king, whose 
foot were not above one to two, drew his men under the 
cannon of Dennington Castle, and having secured his artillery 
and baggage, made a retreat with his foot in very good order, 
having not lost in all the fight above three hundred men, and 
the parliament as many. We lost five pieces of cannon, and 
took two, having repulsed the Earl of Manchester's men on 
the north side of the town, with considerable loss. 

The king, having lodged his train of artillery and baggage 
in Dennington Castle, marched the next day for Oxford ; 
there we joined him with three thousand horse and two 
thousand foot. Encouraged with this reinforcement, the 
king appears upon the hills on the north-west of Newbury, 
and faces the parliament army. The parliament having too 
many generals as well as soldiers, they could not agree 
whether they should fight or no. This was no great token of 
the victory they boasted of; for they were now twice our 
number in the whole ; and their foot three for one. The 
king stood in battalia all day, and finding the parliament 
forces had no stomach to engage him, he drew away his 
cannon and baggage out of Dennington Castle in view of their 
whole army, and marched away to Oxford. 

This was such a false step of the parliament's generals, 
that all the people cried shame of them : the parliament 
appointed a committee to inquire into it. Cromwell accused 
Manchester, and he Waller, and so they laid the fault upon 
one another. Waller would have been glad to have charged 
it upon Essex ; but as it happened he was not in the army, 
having been taken ill some days before ; but, as it generally 
is, when a mistake is made the actors fall out among them- 
selves, so it was here. No doubt it was as false a step as 
that of Cornwall, to let the king fetch away his baggage and 
cannon in the face of three armies, and never fire a shot at 
them. 

The king had not above eight thousand foot in his army, 
and they above twenty-five thousand. It is true, the king 
had eight thousand horse, a fine body, and much superior to 






BAD CONDUCT OF THE PARLIAMENT SOLDIERS. 195 

theirs ; but the foot might, with the greatest ease in the world 
have prevented the removing the cannon, and in three days' 
time have taken the castle, with all that was in it. 

Those differences produced their self-denying ordinance, 
and the putting by most of their old generals, as Essex, 
Waller, Manchester, and the like ; and Sir Thomas Fairfax, a 
terrible man in the field, though the mildest man out of it, was 
voted to have the command of all their forces, and Lambert 
to take the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax's troops in the 
north, old Skippon being major-general. 

This winter was spent, on the enemy's side, in modelling, 
as they called it, their army ; and on our side, in recruiting 
ours, and some petty excursions. Amongst the many ad- 
dresses, I observed one from Sussex or Surrey, complaining 
of the rudeness of their soldiers, and particularly of the 
ravishing of women, and the murdering of men ; from which 
I only observed, that there were disorders among them, as 
well as among us, only with this difference, that they, for 
reasons I mentioned before, were under circumstances to 
prevent it better than the king. But I must do the king's 
memory that justice, that he used all possible methods, by 
punishment of soldiers, charging, and sometimes entreating 
the gentlemen not to suffer such disorders and such violences 
in their men ; but it was to no purpose for his majesty to 
attempt it, while his officers, generals, and great men winked 
at it ; for the licentiousness of the soldier is supposed to be 
approved by the officer, when it is not corrected. 

The rudeness of the parliament soldiers began from the 
divisions among their officers ; for, in many places, the 
soldiers grew so out of all discipline, and so unsufferably rude, 
that they, in particular, refused to march when Sir William 
Waller went to Weymouth. This had turned to good account 
for us, had these cursed Scots been out of our way, but they 
were the staff of the party ; and now they were daily solicited 
to march southward, which was a very great affliction to the 
king and all his friends. 

One booty the king got at this time, which was a very 
seasonable assistance to his affairs, viz., a great merchant 
ship richly laden at London, and bound to the East Indies, 
was, by the seamen, brought into Bristol, and delivered up 
to the king. Some merchants in Bristol offered the king 

o 2 



196 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

40,000Z. for her, which his majesty ordered should be ac- 
cepted, reserving only thirty great guns for his own use. 

The treaty at Uxbridge now was begun, and we that had 
been well beaten in the war, heartily wished the king would 
come to a peace ; but we all foresaw the clergy would ruin it 
all. The commons were for presbytery, and would never 
agree the bishops should be restored ; the king was willinger 
to comply with anything than this, and we foresaw it would 
be so ; from whence we used to say among ourselves, That 
the clergy was resolved, if there should be no bishop, there 
should be no king. 

This treaty at Uxbridge was a perfect war between the 
men of the gown ; ours was between those of the sword ; and 
I cannot but take notice how the lawyers, statesmen, and the 
clergy of every side bestirred themselves, rather to hinder 
than promote the peace. 

There had been a treaty at Oxford some time before, 
where the parliament insisting that the king should pass a 
bill to abolish episcopacy, quit the militia, abandon several 
of his faithful servants to be exempted from pardon, and 
making several other most extravagant demands, nothing 
was done, but the treaty broke off, both parties being rather 
farther exasperated, than inclined to hearken to conditions. 

However, soon after the success in the west, his majesty, 
to let them see that victory had not puffed him up so as to 
make him reject the peace, sends a message to the parliament 
to put them in mind of messages of like nature which they 
had slighted ; and to let them know, that, notwithstanding 
he had beaten their forces, he was yet willing to hearken to 
a reasonable proposal for putting an end to the war. 

The parliament pretended the king, in his message, did 
not treat with them as a legal parliament, and so made 
hesitations ; but, after long debates and delays, they agreed to 
draw up propositions for peace to be sent to the king. As this 
message was sent to the houses about August, I think they 
made it the middle of November before they brought the 
propositions for peace ; and when they brought them, they 
had no power to enter either upon a treaty, or so much as 
preliminaries for a treaty, only to deliver the letter, and 
receive an answer. 

However, such were the circumstances of affairs at this 



THE PARLIAMENT SUE FOR PEACE. 197 

time, that the king was uneasy to see himself thus treated, 
and take no notice of it. The king returned an answer to 
the propositions, and proposed a treaty by commissioners, 
which the parliament appointed. 

Three months more were spent in naming commissioners. 
There was much time spent in this treaty, but little done ; 
the commissioners debated chiefly the article of religion, and 
of the militia ; in the latter they were very likely to agree; in 
the former both sides seemed too positive. The king would 
by no means abandon episcopacy, nor the parliament presby- 
tery; for both, in their opinion, were jure divino. 

The commissioners finding this point hardest to adjust, 
went from it to that of the militia; but the time spinning 
out, the king's commissioners demanded longer time for the 
treaty ; the other sent up for instructions, but the house 
refused to lengthen out the time. 

This was thought an insolence upon the king, and gave all 
good people a detestation of such haughty behaviour ; and 
thus the hopes of peace vanished ; both sides prepared for 
war with as much eagerness as before. 

The parliament was employed at this time in what they 
called modelling their army; that is to say, that now the 
independent party beginning to prevail, and, as they outdid 
all the others in their resolution of carrying on the war to all 
extremities, so they were both the more vigorous and more 
politic party in carrying it on. 

Indeed the war was after this carried on with greater ani- 
mosity than ever, and the generals pushed forward with a. 
vigour, that, as it had something in it unusual, so it told us 
plainly from this time, whatever they did before, they now 
pushed at the ruin even of the monarchy itself. 

All this while also the war went on ; and though the par- 
liament had no settled army, yet their regiments and troops 
were always in action, and the sword was at work in every 
part of the kingdom. 

Among an infinite number of party skirmishings and fights 
this winter, one happened which nearly concerned me, which 
was the surprise of the town and castle of Shrewsbury. 
Colonel Mitton, with about twelve hundred horse and foot, 
having intelligence with some people in the town, on a Sunday 
morning early broke into the town, and took it, castle and 
all. The loss for the quality, more than the number, was 



198 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

very great to the king's affairs. They took there fifteen pieces 
of cannon, Prince Maurice's magazine of arms and ammuni- 
tion, Prince Rupert's baggage, above fifty persons 01 quality 
and officers : there was not above eight or ten men killed on 
both sides ; for the town was surprised, not stormed. I had 
a particular loss in this action ; for all the men and horses 
my lather had got together for the recruiting my regiment 
were here lost and dispersed ; and, which was the worst, my 
father happening to be then in the town, was taken prisoner, 
and carried to Beeston Castle, in Cheshire. 

I was quartered all this winter at Banbury, and went little 
abroad ; nor had we any action till the latter end of February, 
when I was ordered to march to Leicester, with Sir Marma- 
duke Langdale, in order, as we thought, to raise a body of 
men in that county and Staffordshire, to join the king. 

We lay at Daventry one night, and continuing our march 
to pass the river above Northampton, that town being 
possessed by the enemy, we understood a party of North- 
ampton forces were abroad, and intended to attack us. Ac- 
cordingly, in the afternoon, our scouts brought us word, the 
enemy were quartered in some villages on the road to 
Coventry ; our commander thinking it much better to set 
upon them in their quarters, than to wait for them in the 
field, resolves to attack them early in the morning, before 
they were aware of it. We refreshed ourselves in the field 
for that day, and getting into a great wood near the enemy, 
we stayed there all night, till almost break of day, without 
being discovered. 

In the morning, very early, we heard the enemy's trumpets 
sound to horse ; this roused us to look abroad ; and, sending 
out a scout, he brought us word a party of the enemy was at 
hand. We were vexed to be so disappointed, but finding their 
party small enough to be dealt with, Sir Marmaduke ordered 
me to charge them with three hundred horse and two hundred 
dragoons, while he, at the same time entered the town. 
Accordingly I lay still till they came to the very skirt of the 
wood where I was posted, when I saluted them with a volley 
from my dragoons out of the wood, and immediately showed 
myself with my horse on their front, ready to charge them ; 
they appeared not to be surprised, and received our charge 
with great resolution ; and, being above four hundred men, 
they pushed me vigorously in their turn, putting my men 






GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS OF MY DIVISION. 199 

into some disorder. In this extremity, I sent to order my 
dragoons to charge + Jiein in the flank, which they did with 
great bravery, and the other still maintained the fight with 
desperate resolution. There was no want of courage in our 
men on both sides, but our dragoons had the advantage, and 
at last routed them, and drove them back to the village. 
Here Sir Marmaduke Langdale had his hands full too ; for 
my firing had alarmed the towns adjacent, that when he came 
into the town, he found them all in arms ; and, contrary to 
his expectations, two regiments of foot with about three 
hundred horse more. As Sir Marmaduke had no foot, only 
horse and dragoons, this was a surprise to him ; but he caused 
his dragoons to enter the town, and charge the loot, while his 
horse secured the avenues of the town. 

The dragoons bravely attacked the foot, and Sir Marma- 
duke falling in with his horse, the fight was obstinate and 
very bloody, when the horse, that I had routed came flying 
into the street of the village, and my men at their heels. 
Immediately I left the pursuit, and fell in with all my torce 
to the assistance of my friends ; and, after an obstinate re- 
sistance, we routed the whole party ; we killed about seven 
hundred men, took three hundred and fifty, twenty-seven 
officers, one hundred arms, all their baggage, and two 
hundred horses, and continued our march to Harborough, 
where we halted to refresh ourselves. 

Between Harborough and Leicester we met with a party 
of eight hundred dragoons of the parliament forces. They 
found themselves too few to attack us, and therefore, to avoid 
us, they had gotten into a small wood ; but perceiving them- 
selves discovered, they came boldly out, and placed themselves 
at the entrance into a lane, lining both sides of the hedges 
with their shot. "We immediately attacked them, beat them 
from their hedges, beat them into the wood, and out of the 
wood again, and forced them at last to a downright run away, 
on foot, among the enclosures, where we could not follow 
them, killed about a hundred of them, and took two hundred 
and fifty prisoners, with all their horses, and came that night 
to Leicester. When we came to Leicester, and had taken 
up our quarters, Sir Marmaduke Langdale sent for me to sup 
with him, and told me that he had a secret commission in 
his pocket, which his majesty had commanded him not to 



200 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

open until he came to Leicester ; that now he had sent for 
me to open it together, that we might know what it was 
we were to do, and to consider how to do it ; so pulling 
out his sealed orders, we found we were to get what force 
we could together, and a certain number of carriages 
with ammunition, which the governor of Leicester was to 
deliver us, and a certain quantity of provision, especially 
corn and salt, and to relieve Newark. This town had been 
long besieged ; the fortifications of the place, together with 
its situation, had rendered it the strongest place in England ; 
and, as it was the greatest pass in England, so it was of vast 
consequence to the king's affairs. There was in it a garrison 
of brave old rugged boys, fellows, that like Count Tilly's 
Germans, had iron faces, and they had defended themselves 
with extraordinary bravery a great while, but were reduced 
to an exceeding strait for want of provisions. 

Accordingly we received the ammunition and provision, 
and away we went for Newark; about Melton-Mowbray, 
Colonel Roseter set upon us with above three thousand 
men ; we were about the same number, having two thousand 
five hundred horse and eight hundred dragoons. We had 
some foot, but they were still at Harborough, and were 
ordered to come after us. 

Roseter, like a brave officer, as he was, charged us with 
great fury, and rather outdid us in number, while we defended 
ourselves with all the eagerness we could, and withal gave 
him to understand we were not so soon to be beaten as 
he expected. While the fight continued doubtful, especially 
on our side, our people, who had charge of the carriages and 
provisions, began to enclose our flanks with them, as if we 
had been marching; which, though it was done without 
orders, had two very good effects, and which did us extraor- 
dinary service. First, it secured us from being charged 
in the flank, which Roseter had twice attempted; and 
secondly, it secured our carriages from being plundered, which 
had spoiled our whole expedition. Being thus enclosed, we 
fought with great security ; and though Roseter made three 
desperate charges upon us, he could never break us. Our 
men received him with so much courage, and kept their order 
so well, that the enemy finding it impossible to force us, gave 
it over, and left us to pursue our orders. We did not offer 



" 



I 

DETERMINATION TO RELIEVE NEWARK. 201 

to chase them, but contented enough to have repulsed and 
beaten them off, and our business being to relieve Newark, 
we proceeded. 

If we are to reckon by the enemy's usual method, we got 
the victory, because we kept the field, and had the pillage of 
their dead ; but, otherwise, neither side had any great cause 
to boast. We lost about one hundred and fifty men, and 
near as many hurt ; they left one hundred and seventy on the 
spot, and carried off some. How many they had wounded 
we could not tell ; we got seventy or eighty horses, which 
helped to remount some of our men that had lost theirs in the 
fight. We had, however, this disadvantage, that we were to 
march on immediately after this service ; the enemy only to 
retire to their quarters, which was but hard by. This was 
an injury to our wounded men, whom we were after obliged 
to leave at Bel voir Castle, and from thence we advanced to 
Newark. 

Our business at Newark was to relieve the place, and this 
we resolved to do, whatever it cost, though, at the same time, 
we resolved not to fight, unless we were forced to it. The 
town was rather blocked up than besieged ; the garrison was 
strong, but ill provided ; we had sent them word of our 
coming, and our orders to relieve them, and they proposed 
some measures for our doing it. The chief strength of the 
enemy lay on the other side of the river ; but they having 
also some notice of our design, had sent over forces to 
strengthen their leaguer on this side. The garrison had often 
surprised them by sallies, and indeed had chiefly subsisted for 
some time by what they brought in in this manner. 

Sir Marmaduke Langdale, who was our general for the 
expedition, was for a general attempt to raise the siege ; but 
I had persuaded him off that : first, because if we should be 
beaten, as might be probable, we then lost the town. Sir 
Marmaduke briskly replied, A soldier ought never to suppose 
he shall be beaten. But, sir, says I, you'll get more honour 
by relieving the town, than by beating them: one will be a 
credit to your conduct, as the other will be to your courage ; 
and, if you think you can beat them, you may do it after- 
wards, and then, if you are mistaken, the town is nevertheless 
secured, and half your victory gained. 

He was prevailed with to adhere to this advice, and 
accordingly we appeared before the town about two hours 



202 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

before night. The horse drew up before the enemy's works ; 
the enemy drew up within their works, and seeing no foot, 
expected when our dragoons would dismount and attack them. 
They were in the right to let us attack them, because of the 
advantage of their batteries and works, if that had been our 
design ; but, as we intended only to amuse them, this caution 
of theirs effected our design ; for, while we thus l<xced them 
with our horse, two regiments of foot, which came up to us 
but the night before, and was all the infantry we had, with 
the waggons of provisions, and five hundred dragoons, taking 
a compass clean round the town, posted themselves on the 
lower side of the town by the river. Upon a signal the 
garrison agreed on before, they sallied out at this very 
juncture, with all the men they could spare, and dividing 
themselves in two parties, while one party moved to the left 
to meet our relief, the other party tell on upon part of that 
body which faced us. We kept in motion, and upon this 
signal advanced to their works, and our dragoons 'fired upon 
them ; and the horse wheeling and countermarching often, 
kept them continually expecting to be attacked. By this 
means the enemy were kept employed, and our foot, with the 
waggons, appearing on that quarter where they were least ex- 
pected, easily defeated the advanced guards, and forced that 
post, where entering the leaguer, the other part of the 
garrison, who had sallied that way, came up to them, received 
the waggons, and the dragoons entered with them into the 
town. That party, which we faced on the other side of the 
works, knew nothing of what was done till all was over ; the 
garrison retreated in good order, and we drew off", having 
finished what we came for without fighting. 

Thus we plentifully stored the town with all things wanting, 
and with an addition of five hundred dragoons to their 
garrison ; after which we marched away without fighting a 
stroke. Our next orders were to relieve Pontefract Castle, 
another garrison of the king's, which had been besieged ever 
since a few days after the fight at Marston-moor, by the Lord 
Fairfax, Sir Thomas Fairfax, and other generals in their turn. 

By the way, we were joined with eight hundred horse out 
of Derbyshire, and some foot, so many as made us about four 
thousand five hundred men in all. 



COLONEL FORBES COMMANDS THE SIEGE. 203 



CHAPTER XV. 

ACTION WITH COLONEL FORBES, A SCOTCHMAN 1 VISIT MY 

FATHER, WHO IS PRISONER OF WAR AT SHREWSBURY, 
AND OBTAIN HIS EXCHANGE SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX AP- 
POINTED GENERAL OF THE PARLIAMENT ARMY THE 

KING'S OBSERVATION THEREUPON LEICESTER TAKEN BY 

STORM BATTLE OF NASEBY FATAL CONSEQUENCES 

THEREOF THE KING RETIRES TO WALES. 

Colonel Forbes, a Scotchman, commanded at the siege, in 
the absence of the Lord Fairfax ; the colonel had sent to my 
lord for more troops, and his lordship was gathering his forces 
to come \fp to him ; but he was pleased to come too late. We 
came up with the enemy's leaguer about the break of day, 
and having been discovered by their scouts, they, with more 
courage than discretion, drew out to meet us. We saw no 
reason to avoid them, being stronger in horse than they ; and 
though we had but a few foot, we had a thousand dragoons, 
which helped us out. We had placed our horse and foot 
throughout in one line, with two reserves of horse, and 
between every division of horse, a division of foot, only that, 
on the extremes of our wings, there were two parties of horse 
on each point by themselves, and the dragoons in the centre 
on foot. Their foot charged us home, and stood with push 
of pike a great while ; but their horse charging our horse and 
musketeers, and being closed on the flanks with those two 
extended troops on our wings, they were presently disordered, 
and fled out of the field. The foot thus deserted, were charged 
on every side, and broken. They retreated still fighting, and 
in good order, for a while ; but the garrison sallying upon 
them at the same time, and being followed close by our horse, 
they were scattered, entirely routed, and most of them killed. 
The Lord Fairfax was come with his horse as far as Ferry- 
bridge, but the fight was over ; and all he could do was to 
rally those that fled, and save some of their carriages, which 
else had fallen into our hands. We drew up our little army 
in order of battle the next day, expecting the Lord Fairfax 



204 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER 

would have charged us ; but his lordship was so far from any 
such thoughts, that he placed a party of dragoons, with orders 
to fortify the pass at Ferrybridge, to prevent our falling upon 
him in his retreat, which he needed not have done ; for having 
raised the siege of Pontefract, our business was done, we had 
nothing to say to him, unless we had been strong enough to 
stay. 

We lost not above thirty men in this action, and the enemy 
three hundred, with about a hundred and fifty prisoners, one 
piece of cannon, all their ammunition, a thousand arms, and 
most of their baggage ; and Colonel Lambert was once taken 
prisoner, being wounded, but got off again. 

We brought no relief for the garrison, but the opportunity 
to furnish themselves out of the country, which they did very 
plentifully. The ammunition taken from the enemy was 
given to them, which they wanted, and was their due, for 
they had seized it in the sally they made, before the enemy 
was quite defeated. 

I cannot omit taking notice, on all occasions, how exceeding 
serviceable this method was of .posting musketeers in the in- 
tervals, among the horse, in all this war. I persuaded our 
generals to it, as much as possible, and I never knew a body 
of horse beaten that did so ; yet I had great difficulty to pre- 
vail upon our people to believe it, though it was taught me 
by the greatest general in the world, viz., the King of Sweden. 
Prince Rupert did it at the battle of Marston-moor ; and had 
the Earl of Newcastle not been obstinate against it in his 
right wing, as I observed before, the day had not been lost. 
In discoursing this with Sir Marmaduke Langdale, I had 
related several examples of the serviceableness of these small 
bodies of firemen, and, with great difficulty, brought him to 
agree, telling him, I would be answerable for the success ; 
but, after the fight, he told me plainly he saw the advantage 
of it, and would never fight otherwise again, if he had any 
foot to place. So having relieved these two places, we hast- 
ened, by long marches, through Derbyshire, to join Prince 
Rupert on the edge of Shropshire and Cheshire. We found 
Colonel Roseter had followed us at a distance, ever since the 
business at Melton-Mowbray, but never cared to attack us, 
and we found he did the like still. Our general would fain 
have been during with him again, but we found him too shy. 
Once we laid a trap for him at Dove-bridge, between Derby 






JOIN PRINCE RUPERT IN CHESHIRE. 205 

and Burton-upon-Trent, the body being marched two days 
before ; three hundred dragoons were left to guard the bridge, 
as if we were afraid he should fall upon us. Upon this we 
marched, as I said, on to Burton, and, the next day, fetching 
a compass round, came to a village near Titbury Castle, whose 
name I forgot, where we lay still, expecting our dragoons 
would be attacked. 

Accordingly the colonel, strengthened with some troops of 
horse from Yorkshire, comes up to the bridge, and finding 
some dragoons posted, advances to charge them: the dragoons 
immediately get a horseback, and run for it, as they were 
ordered ; but the old lad was not to be caught so ; for he 
halts immediately at the bridge, and would not come over 
till he had sent three or four flying parties abroad, to discover 
the country. One of these parties fell into our hands, and 
received but coarse entertainment. Finding the plot would 
not take, we appeared, and drew up in view of the bridge, 
but he would not stir ; so we continued our march into 
Cheshire, where we joined Prince Rupert and Prince Mau- 
rice, making together a fine body, being above eight thousand 
horse and dragoons. 

This was the best and most successful expedition I was in 
during this war. It was well concerted, and executed with 
as much expedition and conduct as could be desired, and the 
success was answerable to it; and indeed, considering the 
season of the year, for we set out from Oxford the latter end 
of February, the ways bad, and the season wet, it was a 
terrible march of above two hundred miles, in continual 
action, and continually dodged and observed by a vigilant 
enemy, and at a time when the north was overrun by their 
armies, and the Scots wanting employment for their forces ; 
yet, in less than twenty-three days, we marched two hundred 
miles, fought the enemy in open field four times, relieved one 
garrison besieged, and raised the siege of another, and joined 
our friends at last in safety. 

The enemy was in great pain for Sir William Brereton and 
his forces, and expresses rid night and day to the Scots in 
the north, and to the parties in Lancashire, to come to his 
help. The prince, who used to be rather too forward to fight, 
than otherwise, could not be persuaded to make use of this 
opportunity, but loitered, if I may be allowed to say so, till 
the Scots, with a brigade of horse and two thousand foot, had 



206 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. 

joined him; and then it was not thought proper to engage 
them. 

I took this opportunity to go to Shrewsbury to visit my 
father, who was a prisoner of war there, getting a pass from 
the enemy's governor. They allowed him the liberty oi the 
town, and sometimes to go to his own house upon his parole, 
so that his confinement was not very much to his personal 
injury ; but this, together with the charges he had been at 
in raising the regiment, and above 20,000Z. in money and 
plate, which at several times he had lent, or given rather, to 
the king, had reduced our family to very ill circumstances ; 
and now they talked of cutting down his woods. 

I had a great deal of discourse with my father on this 
affair ; and finding him extremely concerned, I offered to go to 
the king, and desire his leave to go to London, and treat 
about his composition, or to render myself a prisoner in his 
stead, while he went up himself. In this difficulty I treated 
with the governor of the town, who very civilly offered me 
his pass to go for London, which I accepted ; and waiting on 
Prince Kupert, who was then at "Worcester, I acquainted him 
with my design. The prince was unwilling I should go to 
London, but told me he had some prisoners of the parliament's 
friends in Cumberland, and he would get an exchange for my 
father. I told him if he would give me his word for it, I 
knew I might depend upon it, otherwise there was so many of 
the king's party in their hands, that his majesty was tired 
with solicitations for exchanges ; for we never had a prisoner 
but there was ten offers of exchange for him. The prince 
told me, I should depend upon him ; and he was as good as 
his word quickly after. 

While the prince lay at Worcester he made an 'incursion 
into Herefordshire, and having made some of the gentlemen 
prisoners, brought them to Worcester ; and though it was an 
action which had not been usual, they being persons not in 
arms, yet the like being my father's case, who was really not 
in commission, nor in any military service, having resigned 
his regiment three years before to me, the prince insisted on 
exchanging them for such as the parliament had in custody in 
like circumstances. The gentlemen seeing no remedy, soli- 
cited their own case at the parliament, and got it passed in 
their behalf ; and by this means my father got his liberty ; 
and, by the assistance of the Earl of Denbigh, got leave to 



PARLIAMENT ARMY VOTE FAIRFAX AS GENERAL. 207 

come to London to make a composition, as a delinquent, for 
his estate. This they charged at 7000/. ; but by the assist- 
ance of the same noble person, he got off for 4000/. Some 
members of the committee moved very kindly, that my father 
should oblige me to quit the king's service ; but that, as a 
thing which might be out of his power, was not insisted on. 

The modelling of the parliament army took them up all 
this winter, and we were in great hopes the division which 
appeared amongst them might have weakened their party ; 
but when they voted Sir Thomas Fairfax to be general, I 
confess I was convinced the king's affairs were lost and des- 
perate. Sir Thomas, abating the zeal of his party, and the 
mistaken opinion of his cause, was the fittest man amongst 
them to undertake the charge : he was a complete general, 
strict in his discipline, wary in conduct, fearless in action, 
unwearied in the fatigue of the war, and, withal, of a modest, 
noble, generous disposition. We all apprehended danger 
from him, and heartily wished him of our own side ; and the 
king was so sensible, though he would not discover it, that, 
when an account was brought him of the choice they had 
made, he replied, he was sorry for it ; he had rather it had 
been anybody than he. 

The first attempts of this new general and new army 
were at Oxford, which, by the neighbourhood of a numerous 
garrison in Abingdon, began to be very much straitened for 
provisions ; and the new forces under Cromwell and Skip- 
pon, one lieutenant-general, the other major-general to Fair- 
fax, approaching with a design to block it up, the king left 
the place, supposing his absence would draw them away, as 
it soon did. 

The king resolving to leave Oxford, marches from thence 
with all his forces, the garrison excepted, with design to 
have gone to Bristol, but the plague was in Bristol, which 
altered the measures, and changed the course of the king's 
designs, so he marched for Worcester, about the beginning 
of June, 1645. The foot, with a train of forty pieces of 
cannon, marching into Worcester, the horse stayed behind 
some time in Gloucestershire. 

The first action our army did, was to raise the siege of 
Chester. Sir William Brereton had besieged it, or rather 
blocked it up, and when his majesty came to Worcester, he 
sent Prince Rupert with four thousand horse and dragoons, 



208 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

with orders to join some foot out of Wales, to raise the 
siege ; but Sir William thought fit to withdraw, and not stay 
for them, and the town was freed without fighting. The 
governor took care in this interval to furnish himself with 
all things necessary for another siege ; and as for ammuni- 
tion and other necessaries, he was in no want. 

1 was sent with a party into Staffordshire, with design to 
intercept a convoy of stores coming from London, for the use 
of Sir William Brereton ; but they having some notice of the 
design, stopt, and went out of the road to Burton-upon-Trent, 
and so I missed them ; but that we might not come back 
quite empty, we attacked Hawkesly-house, and took it, 
where we got good booty, and brought eighty prisoners back 
to Worcester. From Worcester the king advanced into 
Shropshire, and took his head-quarters at Bridgenorth. This 
was a very happy march of the king's, and had his majesty 
proceeded, he had certainly cleared the north once more of 
his enemies, for -the country was generally for him. At his 
advancing so far as Bridgenorth, Sir William Brereton fled 
up into Lancashire ; the Scots'- brigades who were with him 
retreated into the north, while yet the king was above forty 
miles from them, and all things lay open for conquest. The 
new generals, Fairfax and Cromwell, lay about Oxford, pre- 
paring as if they would besiege it, and gave the king's army 
so much leisure, that his majesty might have been at New- 
castle before they could have been half way to him. But 
heaven, when the ruin of a person^ or party is determined, 
always so infatuates their counsels, as to make them instru- 
mental to it themselves. 

The king let slip this great opportunity, as some thought, 
intending to break into the associated counties of North- 
ampton, Cambridge, and Norfolk, where he had some interests 
forming. What the design was, we knew not, but the king 
turns eastward, and marches into Leicestershire, and having 
treated the country but very indifferently, as having deserved 
no better of us, laid siege to Leicester. 

This was but a short siege ; for the king resolving not to 
loose time, fell on with his great guns, and having beaten 
down their works, our foot entered, after a vigorous resistance, 
and took the town by storm. There was some blood shed 
here, the town being carried by assault ; but it was their own 
faults ; for, after the town was taken, the soldiers and towns- 



I 






209 

men obstinately fought us in the market-place ; insomuch that 
the horse was called to enter the town to clear the streets. 
But this was not all. I was commanded to advance with these 
horse, being three regiments, and to enter the town ; the foot, 
who were engaged in the streets, crying out, Horse, horse. 
Immediately I advanced to the gate, for we were drawn up 
about musket-shot from the works, to have supported our foot, 
in case of a sally. Having seized the gate, I placed a guard 
of horse there, with orders to let nobody pass in or out, and 
dividing my troops, rode up by two ways towards the market- 
place ; the garrison defending themselves in the market-place, 
and in the church-yard, with great obstinacy, killed us a great 
many men ; but as soon as our horse appeared, they demanded 
quarter, which our foot refused them in the first heat, as is 
frequent in all nations, in like cases ; till at last, they threw 
down their arms, and yielded at discretion ; and then, I can 
testify to the world, that fair quarter was given them. I am 
the more particular in this relation, having been an eyewitness 
of the action, because the king was reproached in all the public 
libels, with which those times abounded, for having put a 
great many to death, and hanged the committee of the parlia- 
ment, and some Scots, in cold blood, which was a notorious 
forgery ; and as I am sure there was no such thing done, so 
I must acknowledge I never saw any inclination in his majesty 
to cruelty, or to act anything which was not practised by the 
general laws of war, and by men of honour in all nations. 

But the matter of fact, in respect to the garrison, was as I 
have related; and, if they had thrown down their arms 
sooner, they had had mercy sooner ; but it was not for a 
conquering army, entered a town by storm, to offer conditions 
of quarter in the streets. 

Another circumstance was, that a great many of the 
inhabitants, both men and women, were killed, which is most 
true ; and the case was thus. The inhabitants, to show their 
over-forward zeal to defend the town, fought in the breach ; 
nay, the very women, to the honour of the Leicester ladies, 
if they like it, officiously did their parts ; and after the town 
was taken, and when, if they had had any brains in their zeal, 
they would have kept their houses, and been quiet, they fired! 
upon our men out of their windows, and from the tops of their 
houses, and threw tiles upon their heads ; and I had several 
of my men wounded so, and seven or eight killed. This ex* 

VOL. II. p 



210 MEMOIKS OF A CAVALIER. 

asperated us to the last degree; and, finding one house better 
manned than ordinary, and many shot fired at us out of the 
windows, I caused my men to attack it, resolved to make them 
an example for the rest ; which they did, and breaking open 
the doors, they killed all they found there, without distinction ; 
and I appeal to the world if they were to blame. If the par- 
liament committee, or the Scots' deputies, were here, they 
ought to have been quiet, since the town was taken ; but they 
began with us, and, I think, brought it upon themselves. 
This is the whole case, so far as came within my knowledge, 
for which his majesty was so much abused. 

We took here Colonel Gray and Captain Hacker, and about 
three hundred prisoners, and about three hundred more were 
killed. This was the last day of May, 1645. 

His majesty having given over Oxford for lost, continued 
here some days, viewed the town, ordered the fortifications 
to be augmented, and prepares to make it the seat of war. But 
the parliament, roused at this appearance of the king's army, 
orders their general to raise the siege of Oxford, where the 
garrison had, in a sally, ruined some of their works, and killed 
them one hundred and fifty men, taking several prisoners, and 
carrying them with them into the city ; and orders him to 
march towards Leicester to observe the king. 

The king had now a small, but gallant army, all brave tried 
soldiers, and seemed eager to engage the new-modelled army ; 
and his majesty, hearing that Sir Thomas Fairfax having 
raised the siege of Oxford, advanced towards him, fairly saves 
him the trouble oi a long march, and meets him halfway. 

The army lay at Daventry, and Fairfax at Towcester, about 
eight miles off. Here the king sends away six hundred horse, 
with three thousand head of cattle, to relieve his people in 
Oxford ; the cattle lie might have spared better than the men. 
The king having thus victualled Oxford, changes his resolu- 
tion of fighting Fairfax, to whom Cromwell was now joined 
with four thousand men, or was within a day's march, and 
marches northward. This was unhappy counsel, because late 
given. Had we marched northward at first, we had done it ; 
btit thus it was. Now we marched with a triumphing enemy 
at our heels, and at Naseby their advanced parties attacked 
our rear. The king, upon this, alters his resolution again, 
and resolves to fight, and at midnight calls us up at Harborough 
to come to a council of war. Fate and the king's opinion 



BATTLE OF NASEBT. 211 

determined the council of war ; and it was resolved to fight. 
Accordingly the van, in which was Prince Rupert's brigade 
of horse, of which my regiment was a part, countermarched 
early in the morning. 

By five o'clock in the morning, the whole army, in order 
of battle, began to descry the enemy from the rising grounds, 
about a mile from Naseby, and moved towards them. They 
were drawn up on a little ascent in a large common fallow 
field, in one line, extending from one side of the field to the 
other, the field something more than a mile over ; our army 
in the same order, in one line, with the reserves. 

The king led the main battle of foot, Prince Rupert the 
right wing of the horse, and Sir Marmaduke Langdale the 
left. Of the enemy Fairfax and Skippon led the body, 
Cromwell and Roseter the right, and Ireton the left. The 
numbers of both armies so equal, as not to differ five hundred 
men, save that the king had most horse by about one thousand, 
and Fairfax most foot by about five hundred. The number 
was in each army about eighteen thousand men. 

The armies coming close up, the wings engaged first. The 
prince with his right wing charged with his wonted fury, and 
drove all the parliament's wing of horse, one division excepted, 
clear out of the field, Ireton, who commanded this wing, give 
him his due, rallied often, and fought like a lion ; but our 
wing bore down all before them, and pursued . them with a 
terrible execution. 

Ireton seeing one division of his horse left, repaired to them, 
and keeping his ground, fell foul of a brigade of our foot, who 
coming up to the head of the line, he like a madman charges 
them with his horse. But they with their pikes tore him to 
pieces; so that this division was entirely ruined. Ireton 
himself thrust through the thigh with a pike, wounded in the 
face with a halberd, was unhorsed and taken prisoner. 

Cromwell, who commanded the parliament's right wing, 
charged Sir Marmaduke Langdale with extraordinary fury ; 
but he, an old tried soldier, stood firm, and received the charge 
with equal gallantry, exchanging all their shot, carabines, 
and pistols, and then fell on sword in hand. Roseter and 
Whaley had the better on the point of the wing, and routed 
two divisions of horse, pushed them behind reserves, where 
they rallied, and charged again, but were at last defeated ; 

p 2 



212 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 



the rest of the horse now charged in the flank retreated fight 
ing, and were pushed behind the reserves of foot. 

While this was doing, the foot engaged with equal fierce- 
ness, and for two hours there was a terrible fire. The king's 
foot, backed with gallant officers, and full of rage at the rout 
of their horse, bore down the enemy's brigade led by Skippon. 
The old man wounded, bleeding, retreats to their reserves. 
All the foot, except the general's brigade, were thus driven 
into the reserves, where their officers rallied them, and brought 
them on to a fresh charge ; and here the horse having driven 
our horse above a quarter of a mile from the foot, face about, 
and fall in on the rear of the foot. 

Had our right wing done thus, the day had been secured ; 
but Prince Rupert, according to his custom, following the 
flying enemy, never concerned himself with the safety of those 
behind ; and yet he returned sooner than he had done in like 
cases too. At our return we found all in confusion, our foot 
broken, all but one brigade, which, though charged in the 
front, flank, and rear, could not be broken, till Sir Thomas 
Fairfax himself came up to the- charge with fresh men, and 
then they were rather cut in pieces than beaten ; for they 
stood with their pikes charged every way to the last 
extremity. 

In this condition, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, we 
saw the king rallying his horse, and preparing to renew the 
fight ; and our wing of horse coming up to him, gave him 
opportunity to draw up a large body of horse, so large, that 
all the enemy's horse facing us, stopd still and looked on, but 
did not think fit to charge us, till their foot, who had entirely 
broken our main battle, were put into order again, and 
brought up to us. 

The officers about the king advised his majesty rather to 
draw off; for, since our foot were lost, it would be too much 
odds to expose the horse to the fury of their whole army, 
and would be but sacrificing his best troops, without any 
hopes of success. 

The king, though with great regret at the loss of his foot, 
yet seeing there was no other hope, took his advice, and 
retreated in good order to Harborough, and from thence to 
Leicester. 

This was the occasion of the enemy having so great a 



• 



FATAL CONSEQUENCES OP THE BATTLE. 213 

number of prisoners ; for the horse being thus gone off, the 
foot had no means to make their retreat, and were obliged 
to yield themselves. Commissary-general Ireton being 
taken by a captain of foot, makes the captain his prisoner, to 
save his life, and gives him his liberty for his courtesy 
before. 

Cromwell and Roseter, with all the enemy's horse, followed 
us as far as Leicester, and killed all that they could lay hold 
on straggling from the body, but durst not attempt to charge 
us in a body. The king expecting the enemy would come to 
Leicester, removes to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where we had some 
time to recollect ourselves. 

This was the most fatal action of the whole war; not so much 
for the loss of our cannon, ammunition, and baggage, of which 
the enemy boasted so much, but as it was impossible for the 
dng ever to retrieve it. The foot, the best that he was ever 
naster of, could never be supplied ; his army in the west 
•vas exposed to certain ruin ; the north overrun with the 
- }cots ; in short, the case grew desperate, and the king was 
once upon the point of bidding us all disband, and shift for 
ourselves. 

We lost in this fight not above two thousand slain, and 
the parliament near as many, but the prisoners were a great 
number; the whole body of foot being, as I have said, 
dispersed, there were four thousand five hundred prisoners 
besides four hundred officers, two thousand horses, twelve 
pieces of cannon, forty barrels of powder, all the king's 
baggage, coaches, most of his servants, and his secretary, 
with his cabinet of letters, of which the parliament made 
great improvement, and, basely enough, caused his private 
letters between his majesty and the queen, her majesty's 
letters to the king, and a great deal of such stuff, to be 
printed. 

After this fatal blow, being retreated, as I have said, to 
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire, the king ordered us to 
divide; his mpjesty, with a body of horse, about three 
thousand, went to Lichfield, and through Cheshire into North 
Wales, and Sir Marmaduke Langdale, with about two thou- 
sand five hundred, went to Newark. 

The king remained in Wales for several months ; and 
though the length of the war had almost drained that country 
of men, yet the king raised a great many men there, recruited 



214 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

his horse regiments, and got together six or seven regiment* 
of foot, which seemed to look like the beginning of a nev 
army. 

I had frequent discourses with his majesty in this low ebl 
of his affairs and he would often wish he had not exposed 
his army at Naseby. I took the freedom once to make a 
proposition to his majesty, which, if it had taken effect, I 
verily believe would have given a new turn to his affairs ; 
and that was, at once to slight all his garrisons in the 
kingdom, and give private orders to all the soldiers, in everj 
place, to join in bodies, and meet at two general rendezvous, 
which I would have appointed to be, one at Bristol, and one 
at West-Chester. I demonstrated how easily all the forces 
might reach these two places ; and both being strong and 
wealthy places, and both sea-ports, he would have a free 
communication by sea, with Ireland, and with his friends 
abroad ; and having Wales entirely his own, he might yet 
have an opportunity to make good terms for himself, or els 
have another fair field with the enemy. 

Upon a fair calculation of his troops in several garrison', 
and small bodies dispersed about, I convinced the king, fr 
his own accounts, that he might have two complete armies 
each of twenty-five thousand foot, eight thousand horse, ant' 
two thousand dragoons ; that the Lord Goring and the Lore: 
Hop ton might ship all their forces, and come by sea in twe 
tides, and be with him in a shorter time than the enemj 
could follow. 

With two such bodies he might face the enemy, and make 
a day of it ; but now his men were only sacrificed, and eaten 
up by piecemeal in a party war, and spent their lives and 
estates to do him no service. That if the parliament 
garrisoned the towns and castles he should quit, they would 
lessen their army, and not dare to see him in the field ; and 
if they did not, but left them open, then it would be no loss 
to him, but he might possess them as often as he pleased. 

This advice I pressed with such arguments, that the king 
was once going to despatch orders for the doing it ; but to 
be irresolute in council, is always the companion of a 
declining fortune ; the king was doubtful, and could not 
resolve till it was too late. 

And yet, though the king's forces were very low, his 
majesty was resolved to make one adventure more, and it 



THE KING RETIRES TO WALES. 215 

was a strange one ; for, with but a handful of men, he made 
a desperate march, almost two hundred and fifty miles, in 
the middle of the whole kingdom, Gompassed about with 
armies and parties innumerable, traversed the heart of his 
enemy's country, entered their associated counties, where 
no army had ever yet come, and, in spite of all their 
victorious troops facing and following him, alarmed even 
London itself, and returned safe to Oxford. 

His majesty continued in Wales from the battle at Naseby 
till the 5th or 6th of August, and till he had an account 
from all parts of the progress of his enemies, and the posture 
of his own affairs. 

Here we found, that the enemy, being hard pressed in 
Somersetshire by the Lord Goring, and Lord Hopton's forces, 
who had taken Bridge water, and distressed Taunton, which 
was now at the point of surrender, they had ordered 
Fairfax and Cromwell, and the whole army to march west- 
ward, to relieve the town ; which they did, and Goring's 
troops were worsted, and himself wounded at the fight 
at Langport. 

The Scots, who were always the dead weight upon the 
king's affairs, having no more work to do in the north, were, 
at the parliament's desire, advanced southward, and then 
ordered away towards South Wales, and were set down to 
the siege of Hereford. Here this famous Scotch army spent 
several months in a fruitless siege, ill provided of ammunition, 
and worse with money ; and having sat near three months 
before the town, and done little but eat up the country round 
them; upon the repeated accounts of the progress of the 
Marquis of Montrose in that kingdom, and pressing instances 
of their countrymen, they resolved to raise their siege, and 
go home to relieve their friends. 

The king, who was willing to be rid of the Scots upon 
good terms ; and therefore to hasten them, and lest they 
should pretend to push on the siege to take the town first, 
gives it out, that he was resolved with all his forces to go 
into Scotland and join Montrose; and so having secured 
Scotland, to renew the war from thence. 

And accordingly his majesty marches northwards, with a 
body of four thousand horse ; and, had the king really done 
this, and with that body of horse marched away (for he had 
the start of all his enemies, by above a fortnight's march), 



216 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

he had then had the fairest opportunity for a general turn of 
all his affairs, that he ever had in all the latter part of this 
war: for Montrose, a gallant daring soldier, who from the 
least shadow of force in the farthest corner of his country, 
had, rolling like a snowball, spread all over Scotland, was 
come into the south parts, and had summoned Edinburgh, 
frightened away their statesmen, beaten their soldiers at 
Dundee and other places, and letters and messengers in the 
heels of one another, repeated their cries to their brethren 
in England, to lay before them the sad condition of the 
country, and to hasten the army to their relief. The Scots' 
lords of the enemy's party fled to Berwick, and the chan- 
cellor of Scotland goes himself to General Lesly, to press 
him for help. 

In this extremity of affairs Scotland lay, when we marched 
out of Wales. The Scots at the siege of Hereford hearing 
the king was gone northward with his horse, concluded he 
was gone directly for Scotland, and immediately send Lesly 
with four thousand horse and foot to follow, but did not yet 
raise the siege. 

But the king, still irresolute, turns away to the eastward, 
and comes to Lichfield, where he showed his resentments at 
Colonel Hastings, for his easy surrender of Leicester. 

In this march the enemy took heart; we had troops of 
horse on every side upon us, like hounds started at a fresh 
stag. Lesly, with the Scots, and a strong body followed in 
our rear, Major-general Pointz, Sir John Gell, Colonel 
Roseter, and others, in our way ; they pretended to be ten 
thousand horse, and yet never durst face us. The Scots 
made one attempt upon a troop which stayed a little behind, 
and took some prisoners ; but when a regiment of our horse 
faced them, they retired. At a village near Lichfield, 
another party of about a thousand horse attacked my 
regiment ; we were on the left of the army, and, at a little 
too far a distance. I happened to be with the king at that 
time, and my Lieutenant-colonel with him, so that the 
major had charge of the regiment; he made a very handsome 
defence, but sent messengers for speedy relief; we were on 
a march, and therefore all ready, and the king orders me a. 
regiment of dragoons and three hundred horse, and the body 
halted to bring us off, not knowing how strong the enemy 
might be. When I came to the place, I found my major 



THE KING'S ARMY ATTACK NEWARK. 217 

hard laid to, but fighting like a lion ; the enemy had broke 
in upon him in two places, and had routed one troop, cutting 
them off from the body, and had made them all prisoners. 
Upon this I fell in with the three hundred horse, and cleared 
my major from a party who charged him in the flank ; the 
dragoons immediately alighting, one party of them comes up 
on my wing, and saluting the enemy with their muskets, put 
them to a stand ; the other party of dragoons wheeling to 
the left, endeavouring to get behind them. The enemy 
perceiving they should be overpowered, retreated in as good 
order as they could, but left us most of our prisoners, and 
about thirty of their own. We lost about fifteen of our men, 
and the enemy about forty, chiefly by the fire of our dragoons 
in their retreat. 

In this posture we continued our march ; and though the 
king halted at Lichfield, which was a dangerous article, 
having so many of the enemy's troops upon his hands ; and 
this time gave them opportunity to get into a body ; yet the 
Scots, with their General Lesly, resolving for the north, the 
rest of the troops were not able to face us, till having 
ravaged the enemy's country through Staffordshire, War- 
wick, Leicester, and Nottinghamshire, we came to the 
leaguer before Newark. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE KING'S ARMY ATTACKS NEWARK SUCCESSFUL EXCURSION 

INTO LINCOLNSHIRE SIEGE OF HUNTINGDON BRAVE 

ACTION OF A DRAGOON THE MARQUIS OF MONTROSE 

DOES GREAT SERVICE IN SCOTLAND 1 LEAVE THE ARMY 

ON A VISIT TO MY FATHER'S DISASTROUS TERMINATION 

OF THE WAR, AND FATE OF THE KING'S PARTY. 

The king was once more in the mind to have gone into 
Scotland, and called a council of war to that purpose ; but 
then it was resolved by all hands, that it would be too late 
to attempt it ; for the Scots, and Major-general Pointz, were 
before us, and several strong bodies of horse in our rear; 
and there was no venturing now, unless any advantage 
presented to rout one of those parties which attended us. 
Upon these, and like considerations, we resolved for 



218 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

Newark; on our approach, the forces which blocked up 
that town, drew oft, being too weak to oppose us ; for the 
king was now above five thousand horse and dragoons, 
besides three hundred horse and dragoons he took with him 
from Newark. 

We halted at Newark to assist the garrison, or give them 
time rather to furnish themselves from the country with 
what they wanted, which they were very diligent in doing ; 
for, in two days' time, they filled a large island, which lies 
under the town, between the two branches of the Trent, 
with sheep, oxen, cows, and horses, an incredible number ; 
and our affairs being now something desperate, we were not 
very nice in our usage of the country ; for really if it was not 
with a resolution, both to punish the enemy, and enrich 
ourselves, no man can give any rational account why this 
desperate journey was undertaken. 

It is certain the Newarkers, in the respite they gained by 
our coming, got above 50,000/. from the country round 
them, in corn, cattle, money, and other plunder. 

From hence we broke into Lincolnshire, and the king lay 
at Belvoir Castle, and from Belvoir Castle to Stamford. The 
swiftness of our march was a terrible surprise to the enemy ; 
for our van being at a village on the great road called Stilton, 
the country people fled into the isle of Ely, and every way, 
as if all was lost. Indeed our dragoons treated the country 
very coarsely; and all our men, in general, made themselves 
rich. Between Stilton and Huntingdon we had a small 
bustle with some of the associated troops of horse, but they 
were soon routed, and fled to Huntingdon, wherethey gave 
such an account of us to their fellows, that they did not 
think fit to stay for us, but left their foot to defend them- 
selves as well as they could. 

While this was doing in the van, a party from Burleigh 
House, near Stamford, the seat of the Earl of Exeter, 
pursued four troops of our horse, who straggling towards 
Peterborough, and committing some disorders there, were 
surprised before they could get into a posture of fighting; 
and encumbered, as I suppose, with their plunder, they were 
entirely routed, lost most of their horses, and were forced to 
come away on foot ; but finding themselves in this condition, 
they got into a body in the enclosures, and in that posture 
turning dragoons, they lined the hedges, and fired upon the 






SIEGE OF HUNTINGDON. 219 

enemy with their carabines. This way of fighting, though 
not very pleasant to troopers, put the enemy's horse to some 
stand, and encouraged our men to venture into a village, 
where the enemy had secured forty of their horse ; and 
boldly charging the guard, they beat them off; and recover- 
ing those horses, the rest made their retreat good to Wansford 
Bridge ; but we lost near a hundred horses, and about twelve 
of our men taken prisoners. 

The next day the king took Huntingdon ; the foot which 
were left in the town, as I observed by their horse, had posted 
themselves at the loot of the bridge, and fortified the pass, 
with such things as the haste and shortness of the time would 
allow ; and in this posture they seemed resolute to defend 
themselves. I confess, had they in time planted a good force 
here, they might have put a full stop to our little army ; for 
the river is large and deep, the country on the left marshy, 
full oi drains and ditches, and unfit for horse, and we must 
have either turned back, or took the right hand into Bed- 
fordshire ; but here not being above four hundred foot, and 
they forsaken of their horse, the resistance they made was to 
no other purpose than to give us occasion to knock them in 
the head, and plunder the town. 

However, they defended the bridge, as I have said, and 
opposed our passage. I was this day in the van, and our 
forlorn having entered Huntingdon, without any great re- 
sistance, till they came to the bridge, finding it barricaded, 
they sent me word ; I caused the troops to halt, and rode up 
to the forlorn, to view the countenance of the enemy, and 
found by the posture they had put themselves in, that they 
resolved to sell us the passage as dear as they could. 

I sent to the king for some dragoons, and gave him account 
of what I observed of the enemy, and that I judged them to 
be a thousand men ; for I could not particularly see their 
numbers. Accordingly, the king ordered five hundred dra- 
goons to attack the bridge, commanded by a major; the 
enemy had two hundred musketeers placed on the bridge, 
their barricade served them for a breastwork on the front, 
and the low walls on the bridge served to secure their flanks ; 
two bodies of their foot were placed on the opposite banks of 
the river, and a reserve stood on the highway on the rear. 
The number of their men could not have been better ordered, 
and they wanted not courage answerable to the conduct of 



220 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

the party. They were commanded by one Bennet, a resolute 
officer, who stood in the front of his men on the bridge with 
a pike in his hand. 

Before we began to fall on, the king ordered to view the 
river, to see if it was nowhere passable, or any boat to be had ; 
but the river being not fordable, and the boats all secured on 
the other side, the attack was resolved on, and the dragoons 
fell on with extraordinary bravery. The foot defended them- 
selves obstinately, and beat off our dragoons twice ; and 
though Bennet was killed upon the spot, and after him his 
lieutenant, yet their officers relieving them with fresh men, 
they would certainly have beat us all off, had not a venturous 
fellow, one of our dragoons, thrown himself into the river, 
swam over, and, in the midst of a shower of musket-bullets, 
cut the rope which tied a great flat-bottomed boat, and 
brought her over. "With the help of this boat, I got over a 
hundred troopers first, and then their horses, and then two 
hundred more without their horses ; and with this party fell 
in with one of the small bodies of foot that were posted on 
that side, and having routed tliem, and, after them, the re- 
serve which stood in the road, I made up to the other party; 
they stood their ground, and having rallied the runaways of 
both the other parties, charged me with their pikes, and 
brought me to a retreat ; but by this time the king had sent 
over three hundred men more, and they coming up to me, 
the foot retreated. Those on the bridge finding how it was, 
and having no supplies sent them, as before, fainted, and fled; 
and the dragoons rushing forward, most of them were killed; 
about a hundred and fifty of the enemy were killed, of which 
all the officers at the bridge, the rest ran away. 

The town suffered for it; for our men left them little 
of anything they could carry. Here we halted, and raised 
contributions, took money of the conntry, and of the 
open towns, to exempt them from plunder. Twice we faced 
the town of Cambridge, and several of our officers advised 
his majesty to storm it; but having no foot, and but twelve 
hundred dragoons, wiser heads diverted him from it ; and leaving 
Cambridge on the left, we marched to Woburn, in Bedford- 
shire, and our parties raised money over all the county, 
quite into Hertfordshire, within five miles of St. Albans. 

The swiftness of our march, and uncertainty which way 
we intended, prevented all possible preparation to oppose us, 



THE SCOTS, ILL PAID AND FED, MARCH NORTHWARD. 221 

and we met with no party able to make head against us. 
From Woburn, the king; went through Buckingham to 
Oxford ; some of our men straggling in the villages for 
plunder, were often picked up by the enemy ; but in all this 
long march, we did not lose two hundred men, got an in- 
credible booty, and brought six waggons loaden with money, 
besides two thousand horses, and three thousand head of 
cattle into Oxford. 

From Oxford his majesty moves again into Gloucester- 
shire, having left about fifteen hundred of his horse at Oxford, 
to scour the country, and raise contributions, which they did 
as far as Reading. 

Sir Thomas Fairfax was returned from taking Bridgewater, 
and was sat down before Bristol, in which Prince Rupert 
commanded, with, a strong garrison, two thousand five 
hundred foot, and one thousand horse. We had not force 
enough to attempt anything there ; but the Scots, who lay 
still before Hereford, were afraid of us, having before parted 
with all their horse under Lieutenant-general Lesly, and but 
ill stored with provisions ; and, if we came on their backs, 
were in a fair way to be starved, or made to buy their pro- 
visions at the price of their blood. 

His majesty was sensible of this, and had we had but ten 
regiments of foot, would certainly have fought the Scots ; but 
we had no foot, or so few as not worth while to march them. 
However, the king marched to Worcester, and the Scots 
apprehending they should be blocked up, immediately raised 
the siege., pretending it was to go to help their brethren in 
Scotland, and away they marched northwards. 

We picked up some of their stragglers, but they were so 
poor, had been so ill paid, and so harassed at the siege, that 
they had neither money nor clothes ; and the poor soldiers 
fed upon apples and roots, and eat the very green corn as it 
grew in the fields, which reduced them to a very sorry con- 
dition of health, for they died like people infected with the 
plague. 

It was now debated whether we should yet march for 
Scotland, but two things prevented. 1. The plague was 
broke out there, and multitudes died of it, which made the 
king backward, and the men more backward. 2. The Mar- 
quis of Montrose having routed a whole brigade of Lesly's 
best horse, and carried all before him, wrote to his majesty, 



222 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

that he did not now want assistance, but was in hopes in a 
few days to send a body of foot into England, to his majesty's 
assistance. This over confidence of his was his ruin ; for, on 
the contrary, had he earnestly pressed the king to have 
marched, and fallen in with his horse, the king had done it, 
and been absolutely master of Scotland in a fortnight's time ; 
but Montrose was too confident, and defied them all, till at 
last they got their forces together, and Lesly, with his horse 
out of England, and worsted him in two or three encounters, 
and then never left him till they drove him out of Scotland. 

While his majesty stayed at Worcester several messengers 
came to him from Cheshire for relief, being exceedingly 
straitened by the forces of the parliament : in order to which, 
the king marched; but Shrewsbury being in the enemy's 
hands, he was obliged to go round by Ludlow, where he was 
joined by some foot out of Wales. I took this opportunity 
to ask his majesty's leave to go by Shrewsbury to my father's, 
and taking only two servants, I left the army two days before 
they marched. 

This was the most unsoldier-like action that ever I was 
guilty of, to go out of the army to pay a visit, when a time 
of action was just at hand; and, though I protest I had not 
the least intimation, no, not from my own thoughts, that the 
army would engage, at least before they came to Chester, 
before which I intended to meet them ; yet it looked so ill, so 
like an excuse, or a sham of cowardice, or disaffection to the 
cause, and to my master's interest, or something I know not 
what, that I could not bear to think of it, nor never had the 
heart to see the king's face after it. 

From Ludlow the king marched to relieve Chester : Poyntz, 
who commanded the parliament's forces, follows the king, 
with design to join with the forces before Chester, under 
Colonel Jones, before the king could come up. To that end, 
Poyntz passes through Shrewsbury the day that the king 
marched from Ludlow ; yet the king's forces got the start of 
him, and forced him to engage. Had the king engaged him 
but three hours sooner, and consequently farther off from 
Chester, he had ruined him ; for Poyntz' s men, not able to 
stand the shock of the king's horse, gave ground, and would 
in half an hour more have been beaten out of the field ; but 
Colonel Jones, with a strong party from the camp, which was 
within two miles, comes up in the heat of the action, falls on 



DISASTROUS TERMINATION OP THE WAP 223 

in the king's rear, and turned the scale of the day. The 
body was, after an obstinate fight defeated, and a great many 
gentlemen of quality killed and taken prisoners ; the Earl of 
Lichfield was of the number of the former, and sixty-seven 
officers of the latter, with a thousand others. 

The king, with about five hundred horse got into Chester, 
and from thence into Wales, whither all that could get away 
made up to him as fast as they could, but in a bad condition. 

This was the last stroke they struck, the rest of the war 
was nothing but taking all his garrisons from him, one by one, 
till they finished the war with the captivating his person, and 
then, for want of other business, fell to fighting with one 
another. 

I was quite disconsolate at the news of this last action, 
and the more, because I was not there ; my regiment was 
wholly dispersed, my lieutenant colonel, a gentleman of a 
good family, and a near relation to my mother, was pri- 
soner, my major and three captains killed, and most of the 
rest prisoners. 

The king, hopeless of any considerable party in Wales, 
Bristol being surrendered, sends for Prince Rupert, and 
Prince Maurice, who came to him. With them, and the 
Lord Digby, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, and a great train of 
gentlemen, his majesty marches to Newark again, leaves a 
thousand horse with Sir William Vaughan, to attempt the 
relief of Chester, in doing whereof he was routed the second 
time by Jones and his men, and entirely dispersed. 

The chief strength the king had in these parts was 
Newark, and the parliament were very earnest with the Scots 
to march southward, and to lay siege to Newark ; and while 
the parliament pressed them to it, and they sat still, and 
delayed it, several heats began, and some ill blood between 
them, which afterwards broke out into open war. The 
English reproached the Scots with pretending to help them, 
and really hindering their affairs. The Scots returned, that 
they came to fight for them, and are left to be starved, and 
can neither get money nor clothes. At last they came to 
this, the Scots will come to the siege, if the parliament will 
send them money, but not before. However, as people 
sooner agree in doing ill, than in doing well, they came to 
terms, and the Scots came with their whole army to the siege 
of Newark. 



224 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

The king, foreseeing the siege, calls his friends about him, 
tells them, he sees his circumstances are such, that they can 
help him but little, nor he protect them, and advises them to 
separate. The Lord Digby, with Sir Maraiaduke Langdale, 
with a strong body of horse, attempt to get into Scotland to 
join with Montrose, who was still in the highlands, though 
reduced to a low ebb ; but these gentlemen are fallen upon 
on every side and routed, and at last being totally broken 
and dispersed, +hey fly to the Earl of Derby's protection in 
the Isle of Man. 

Prince Rupert, Prince Maurice, Colonel Gerard, and abovt* 
four hundred gentlemen, all officers of horse, lay their com- 
missions down, and seizing upon Wooton-house for a retreat, 
make proposals to the parliament to leave the kingdom, upon 
their parole, not to return again in arms against the parlia- 
ment, which was accepted, though afterwards the princes* 
declined -it. I sent my man post to the prince to be included 
in this treaty, and for leave for all that would accept of like 
conditions, but they had given in the list of their names, and 
could not alter it. 

This was a sad time ; the poor remains of the king's for- 
tunes went everywhere to wreck ; every garrison of the, 
enemy was full of the cavalier prisoners, and every garrison 
the king had was beset with enemies, either blocked up or 
besieged. Goring and the Lord Hopton were the only 
remainder of the king's forces which kept in a body, and 
Fairfax was pushing them with all imaginable vigour with 
his whole army, about Exeter, and other parts of Devonshire 
and Cornwall. 

In this condition the king left Newark in the night, and 
got to Oxford. The king had in Oxford eight thousand men ; 
and in the towns of Banbury, Farrington. Dunnington-castle, 
and such places, as might have been brought together in 
twenty-four hours, fifteen or twenty thousand men, with 
which, if he had then resolved to have quitted the place, and 
collected the forces in "Worcester, Hereford, Lichfield, Ashby- 
de-la-Zouch, and all the small castles and garrisons he had 
thereabouts, he might have had near forty thousand men, 
might have beaten the Scots from Newark, Colonel Jones 
from Chester, and all before Fairfax, who was in the west, 
could be -able to come to their relief, and this his majesty's 
friends in North Wales had concerted ; and, in order to it, Sir 



THE KING'S PARTY ARE DISPERSED. 225 

Jacob Ashby gathered what forces he could, in our parts, 
and attempted to join the king at Oxford, and to have pro- 
posed it to him ; but Sir Jacob was- entirely routed at Stow- 
on-the-Wold, and taken prisoner, and of three thousand men 
not above six hundred came to Oxford. 

All the king's garrisons dropt one by one ; Hereford which 
had stood out against the whole army of the Scots, was 
surprised by six men and a lieutenant, dressed up for country 
labourers, and a constable pressed to work, who cut the 
guards in pieces, and let in a party of the enemy. 

Chester was reduced by famine, all the attempts the king 
made to relieve it, being frustrated. 

Sir Thomas Fairfax routed the Lord Hopton at Torrington, 
and drove him to such extremities, that he was forced up into 
the farthest corner of Cornwall. The Lord Hopton had a 
gallant body of horse with him of nine brigades, but no foot ; 
Fairfax, a great army. 

Heartless, and tired out with continual ill news and ill 
success, I had frequent meetings with some gentlemen, who 
had escaped from the rout of Sir William Vaughan, and we 
agreed upon a meeting at Worcester of all the friends we 
could get, to see if we could raise a body fit to do any service ; 
or, if not, to consider what was to be done. At this meeting 
we had almost as many opinions as people ; our strength 
appeared too weak to make any attempt, the game was too 
far gone in our parts to be retrieved ; all we could make up 
did not amount to above eight hundred horse. 

It was unanimously agreed not to go in to the parliament 
as long as our royal master did not give up the cause ; but 
in all places, and by all possible methods, to do him all the 
service we could. Some proposed one thing, some another : 
at last we proposed getting vessels to carry us to the Isle of 
Man, to , the Earl of Derby, as Sir Marmaduke Langdale, 
Lord Digby, and others had done. I did not foresee any 
service it would be to the king's affairs, but I started a 
proposal, that, marching to Pembroke in a body, we should 
there seize upon all the vessels we could, and embarking 
ourselves, horses, and what foot we could get, cross the 
Severn sea, and land in Cornwall to the assistance of Prince 
Charles, who was in the army of the Lord Hopton, and 
where only there seemed to be any possibility of a chance for 
the remaining part of our cause. 

VOL. II. Q 



226 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

This proposal was not without its difficulties, as how to 
get to the sea-side, and, when there, what assurance of 
shipping. The enemy, under Major-general Langhorn, had 
overrun Wales, and it would be next to impossible to effect 
it. 

We could never cany our proposal with the whole assem- 
bly ; but, however, about two hundred of us resolved to at- 
tempt it, and the meeting being broke up without coming to 
any conclusion, we had a private meeting among ourselves 
to effect it. 

We despatched private messengers to Swansea and Pem- 
broke, and other places; but they all discouraged us from 
the attempt that way, and advised us to go higher towards 
North Wales, where the king's interest had more friends, 
and the parliament no forces. Upon this we met, and 
resolved, and having sent several messengers that way, one 
of my men provided us two small vessels in a little creek 
near Harleigh Castle, in Merionethshire. We marched away 
with what expedition we could, and embarked in the two 
vessels accordingly. It was the worst voyage sure that ever 
man went ; for, first, we had no manner of accomodation for 
so many people ; hay for our horses we got none, or very 
little, but good store of oats, which served us for our own 
bread as well as provender for the horses. 

In this condition we put off to sea, and had a fair wind 
all the first night, but early in the morning a sudden storm 
drove us within two or three leagues of Ireland. In this 
pickle, sea-sick, our horses rolling about upon one another, 
and ourselves stifled for want of room, no cabins nor beds, 
very cold weather, and very indifferent diet, we wished our- 
selves ashore again a thousand times ; and yet we were not 
willing to go on shore in Ireland, if we could help it ; for the 
rebels having possession of every place, that was just having 
our throats cut at once. Having rolled about at the mercy 
of the winds all day, the storm ceasing in the evening, we 
had fair weather again, but wind enough, which being large, 
in two days and a night we came upon the coast of Cornwall, 
and, to our no small comfort, landed the next day at St. Ives, 
in the county of Cornwall. 

We rested ourselves here, and sent an express to the Lord 
Hopton, who was then in Devonshire, of our arrival, and 
desired him to assign us quarters, and send us his farther 



ENTIRE DEFEAT OF LORD HOPTON AND HIS HORSE. 227 

orders. His lordship expressed a very great satisfaction at 
our arrival, and left it to our own conduct to join him as we 
saw convenient. 

We were marching to join him, when news came that 
Fairfax had given him an entire defeat at Torrington. This 
was but the old story over again ; we had been used to ill 
news a great while, and it was the less surprise to us. 

Upon this news we halted at Bodmin, till we should hear 
farther ; and it was not long before we saw a confirmation 
of the news before our eyes ; for the Lord Hopton, with the 
remainder of his horse, which he had brought off at Torring- 
ton in a very shattered condition, retreated to Launceston, the 
first town in Cornwall, and hearing that Fairfax pursued 
him, came on to Bodmin. Hither he summoned all the troops 
which he had left, which, when he had got together, were a 
fine body indeed of five thousand horse, but few foot but 
what were at Pendennis, Barnstaple, and other garrisons ; 
these were commanded by the Lord Hopton ; the Lord G-o- 
ring had taken shipping for France, to get relief, a few days 
before. 

Here a grand council of war was called, and several things 
were proposed; but, as it always is in distress, people are 
most irresolute, so it was here. Some were for breaking 
through by force, our number being superior to the enemy's 
horse. To fight them with their foot would be desperation, 
and ridiculous; and to retreat would but be to coop up 
themselves in a narrow place, where, at last, they must be 
forced to fight upon disadvantage, or yield at mercy. Others 
opposed this as a desperate action, and without probability 
of success ; and all were of different opinions. I confess, 
when I saw how things were, I saw it was a lost game, and 
I was for the opinion of breaking through and doing it now, 
while the country was open and large, and not being forced 
to it when it must be with more disadvantage; but nothing 
was resolved on, and so we retreated before the enemy. 
Some small skirmishes there happened near Bodmin, but 
none that were very considerable. 

It was the first of March when we quitted Bodmin, and 
quartered at large at Columb, St. Denis, and Truro, and the 
enemy took his quarters at Bodmin, posting his horse at the 
passes from Padstow on the north, to Warbridge, Lestithel, 
and Foy, spreading so from sea to sea, that now breaking 

Q 2 



228 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

through was impossible. There was no more room for counsel ; 
for, unless we had ships to carry us off, we had nothing to do 
but when we were fallen upon, to defend ourselves, and sell 
victory as dear as we could to the enemies. 

The Prince of Wales, seeing the distress we were in, and 
loath to tall into the enemy's hands, ships himself on board 
some vessel at Falmouth, with about four hundred lords and 
gentlemen ; and, as I had no command here to oblige my 
attendance, I was once going to make one ; but my comrades, 
whom I had been, the principal occasion of bringing hither, 
began to take it ill, that I would leave them, and so I resolved 
we would take our fate together. 

While thus we had nothing before us but a soldier's death, 
a fair field and a strong enemy, and people began to look one 
upon another ; the soldiers asked how their officers looked, 
and the officers asked how their soldiers looked, and every 
day we expected to be our last, when, unexpectedly, the 
enemy's general sent a trumpet to Truro to my Lord Hopton, 
with a very handsome gentlemanlike offer. 

That, since the general could not be ignorant of his 
present condition, and that the place he was in could not 
afford him subsistence or defence, and especially considering, 
that the state of our affairs was such, that, if we should 
escape from thence, we could not remove to our advantage, 
he had thought good to let us know, that, if we would 
deliver up our horses and arms, he would, for avoiding the 
effusion of Christian blood, or the putting any unsoldierly 
extremities upon us, allow such honourable and safe conditions, 
as were rather better than our present circumstances could 
demand, and such as should discharge him to all the world, 
as a gentleman, as a soldier, and as a Christian. 

After this followed the conditions he would give us, which 
were as follow : viz., That all the soldiery, as well English 
as foreigners, should have liberty to go beyond the seas, 
or to their own dwellings, as they pleased ; and to such as 
shall choose to live at home, protection for their liberty, 
and from all violence, and plundering of soldiers, and to 
give them bag and baggage, and all their goods, except 
horses and arms. 

That for officers in commissions, and gentlemen of quality, 
he would allow them horses for themselves and one servant, 
or more, suitable to their quality, and such arms as 



HONOURABLE CONDITIONS OF SURRENDER OFFERED. 229 

suitable to gentlemen of such quality travelling in times oi 
peace ; and such officers as would go beyond sea, should 
take with them their full arms and number of horses as are 
allowed in the army to such officers. 

That all the troopers shall receive, on the delivery of 
their horses, twenty shillings a man to carry them home ; 
and the general's pass and recommendation to any gentle- 
man who desires to go to the parliament to settle the 
composition for their estates. 

Lastly, a very honourable mention of the general, and 
offer of their mediation to the parliament, to treat him as a 
man of honour, and one who has been tender of the country, 
and behaved himself with all the moderation and candour 
that could be expected from an enemy. 

Upon the unexpected receipt of this message, a council of 
war was called, and the letter read ; no man offered to speak 
a word ; the general moved it, but every one was loath to 
begin. 

At last, an old colonel starts up, and asked the general, 
what he thought might occasion the writing this letter? 
The general told him, he could not tell ; but he could tell he 
was sure of one thing, that he knew what was not the 
occasion of it, viz., that is, not any want of force in their 
army to oblige us to other terms. Then a doubt was started, 
whether the king and parliament were not in any treaty, 
which this agreement might be prejudicial to. 

This occasioned a letter to my Lord Fairfax, wherein our 
general returning the civilities, and neither accepting nor 
refusing his proposal, put it upon his honour, whether there 
was not some agreement or concession between his majesty 
and the parliament, in order to a general peace, which this 
treaty might be prejudicial to, or thereby be prejudicial 
to us. 

The Lord Fairfax ingenuously declared, he had heard the 
king had made some concessions, and he heartily wished he 
would make such as would settle the kingdom in peace, that 
Englishmen might not wound and destroy one another ; but 
that he declared he knew of no treaty commenced, nor 
anything past, which could give us the least shadow of hope 
for any advantage in not accepting his conditions. At last, 
telling us, that though he did not insult over our circum- 



230 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

stances, yet, if we thought fit, upon any such supposition, to 
refuse his offers, he was not to seek in his measures. 

And it appeared so, for he immediately advanced his 
forlorns, and dispossessed us of two advanced quarters, and 
thereby straitened us yet more. 

We had now nothing to say, but treat, and our general 
was so sensible of our condition, that he returned the 
trumpet with a safe conduct for commissioners at twelve 
o'clock that night; upon which a cessation of arms was 
agreed on, we quitting Truro to the Lord Fairfax, and he 
left St. Albans to us to keep our head quarters. 

The conditions were soon agreed on ; we disbanded nine 
full brigades of horse, and all the conditions were observed 
with the most honour and care by the enemy that ever I saw 
in my life. 

Nor can I omit to make very honourable mention of this 
noble gentleman, though I did not like his cause; but I 
never saw a man of a more pleasant, calm, courteous, down- 
right honest behaviour in my life ; and, for his courage and 
personal bravery in the field, that we had felt enough of. 
No man in the world had more fire and fury in him while in 
action, or more temper and softness out of it. In short, and 
I cannot do him greater honour, he came exceedingly near 
the character of my foreign hero Gustavus Adolphus, and in 
my account, is, of all the soldiers in Europe, the fittest to be 
reckoned in the second place of honour to him. 

I had particular occasion to see much of his temper in all 
this action, being one of the hostages given by our general 
for the performance of the conditions, in which circumstance 
the general did me several times the honour to send to me to 
dine with him ; and was exceedingly pleased to discourse 
with me about the passages of the wars in Germany, which 
I had served in ; he having been, at the same time, in the 
Low Countries, in the service of Prince Maurice; but I 
observed, if at any time my civilities extended to commen- 
dations of his own actions, and especially to comparing him 
to Gustavus Adolphus, he would blush like a woman, and be 
uneasy, declining the discourse, and in this he was still more 
like him. 

Let no man scruple my honourable mention of this noble 
enemy, since no man can suspect me of favouring the cause 



THE KING QUITS THE TOWN XN DISGUISE. 231 

he embarked in, which I served as heartily against as any 
man in the army ; but I cannot conceal extraordinary merit 
for its being placed in an enemy. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

VARIOUS OPINIONS ON THE KING'S THROWING HIMSELF 
UPON THE FIDELITY OF THE SCOTS THE SCOTCH PARLIA- 
MENT REFUSE TO RECEIVE HIM INTO SCOTLAND THE 

KING IS GIVEN UP CONSEQUENCES THEREOF REFLEC- 
TIONS THE KING'S DEATH — CONCLUSION. 

This was the end of our making war ; for now we were all 
under parole never to bear arms against the parliament ; and 
though some of us did not keep our word, yet I think a 
soldier's parole ought to be the most sacred in such case, that 
a soldier may be the easier trusted at all times upon his word. 

For my part, I went home fully contented, since I could 
do my royal master no better service, that I had come off no 
worse. 

The enemy going now on in a full current of success, and 
the king reduced to the last extremity, and Fairfax, by long 
marches, being come back within five miles of Oxford, his 
majesty, loath to be cooped up in a town which could on no 
account hold long out, quits the town in a disguise, leaving 
Sir Thomas Glenham governor, and being only attended with 
Mr. Ashburnham and one more, rides away to Newark, and 
there fatally committed himself to the honour and fidelity of 
the Scots, under general Leven. 

There had been some little bickering between the parlia- 
ment and the Scots' commissioners, concerning the propositions 
which the Scots were for a treaty with the king upon, and the 
parliament refused it. The parliament, upon all proposals of 
peace, had formerly invited the king to come and throw him- 
self upon the honour, fidelity, and affection of his parliament ; 
and now the king from Oxford offering to come up to London, 
on the protection of the parliament for the safety of his person, 
they refused him, and the Scots differed from them in it, and 
were for a personal treaty. 

This, in our opinion, was the reason which prompted the 



232 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

king to throw himself upon the fidelity of the Scots, who 
really by their infidelity had been the ruin of all his affairs, 
and now, by their perfidious breach of honour and faith with 
him, will be virtually and mediately the ruin of his person. 

The Scots were, as all the nation besides them was, sur- 
prised at the king's coming among them: the parliament 
began very high with him,. and sent an order to general Leven 
to send the king to Warwick Castle ; but he was not so hasty 
to part with so rich a prize. As soon as the king came to 
the general, he signs an order to Colonel Bellasis, the governor 
of Newark, to surrender it, and immediately the Scots decamp 
homewards, carrying the king in the camp with them ; and, 
marching on, a house was ordered to be provided for the king 
at Newcastle. 

And now the parliament saw their error, in refusing his 
majesty a personal treaty, which, if they had accepted (their 
army was not yet taught the way of huffing their masters), 
the kingdom might have been settled in peace. Upon this 
the parliament send to General Leven to have his majesty, 
not to be sent, which was their first language, but be suffered 
to come to London, to treat with his parliament : before it 
was, Let the king be sent to Warwick Castle ; now it is, to 
Let his majesty come to London to treat with his people. 

But neither one or the other would do with the Scots : but 
we, who knew the Scots best, knew that there was one thing 
would do with them, if the other would not, and that was 
money ; and therefore our hearts ached for the king. 

The Scots, as I said, had retreated to Newcastle with the 
king, and there they quartered their whole army at large 
upon the country ; the parliament voted they had no farther 
occasion for the Scots, and desired them to go home about 
their business. I do not say it was in these words, but /in 
whatsoever good words their messages might be expressed, 
this and nothing less was the English of it. The Scots reply, 
by setting forth their losses, damages, and dues, the substance 
of which was, Pay us our money, and we will be gone, or 
else we won't stir. The parliament call for an account of 
their demands, which the Scots give in, amounting to a 
million ; but, according to their custom, and especially finding 
that the army under Fairfax inclined gradually that way, fall 
down to 500,000Z. and at last to four ; but all the while this 
is transacting, a separate treaty is carried on at London with 



THE KING REFUSED ADMISSION TO SCOTLAND. 233 

the commissioners of Scotland, and afterwards at Edinburgh, 
by which it is given them to understand, that whereas, upon 
payment of the money, the Scots' army is to march out of 
England, and to give up all the towns and garrisons which 
they hold in this kingdom, so they are to take it for granted, 
that it is the meaning of the treaty, that they shall leave the 
king in the hands of the English parliament. 

To make this go down the better, the Scotch parliament, 
upon his majesty's desire to go with their army into Scotland, 
send him for answer, that it cannot be for the safety of his 
majesty or of the state, to come into Scotland, not having 
taken the covenant ; and this was carried in their parliament 
but by two voices. 

The Scots having refused his coming into Scotland, as was 
concerted between the two houses, and their army being to 
march out of England, the delivering up the king became a ' 
consequence of the thing unavoidable, and of necessity. 

His majesty thus deserted of those into whose hands he had 
thrown himself, took his leave of the Scots' general at New- 
castle, telling him only, in few words, this sad truth, that he 
was bought and sold. The parliament commissioners received 
him at Newcastle from the Scots, and brought him to 
Holmby-house, in Northamptonshire; from whence, upon 
the quarrels and feuds of parties, he was fetched by a party 
of horse, commanded by one Cornet Joyce, from the army, 
upon their mutinous rendezvous at Triplow-heath ; and, after 
this, suffering many violences, and varieties of circumstances 
among the army, was carried to Hampton- Court, from 
whence his majesty very readily made his escape; but not 
having notice enough to provide effectual means for his more 
effectual deliverance, was obliged to deliver himself to Colonel 
Hammond in the Isle of Wight. Here, after some very 
indifferent usage, the parliament pursued a farther treaty with 
him, and all points were agreed but two : The entire abolish- 
ing episcopacy, which the king declared to be against his 
conscience and his coronation oath, and the sale of the church 
lands, which he declared, being most of them gifts to God 
and the church, by persons deceased, his majesty thought 
could not be alienated without the highest sacrilege, and, if 
taken from the uses to which they were appointed by the 
wills of the donors, ought to be restored back to the heirs 
and families of the persons who beoueathed them. 



234 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

And these two articles so stuck with his majesty, that he 
ventured his fortune and royal family, and his own life, for 
them : however, at last, the king condescended so far in these, 
that the parliament voted his majesty's concessions to be suf- 
ficient to settle and establish the peace of the nation. 

This vote discovered the bottom of all the counsels which 
then prevailed ; for the army, who knew, if peace were once 
settled, they should be undone, took the alarm at this, and, 
clubbing together in committees and councils, at last brought 
themselves to a degree of hardness above all that ever this 
nation saw ; for, calling into question the proceedings of their 
masters who employed them, they immediately fall to work 
upon the parliament, remove Colonel Hammond, who had 
the charge of the king, and used him honourably, place a new 
guard upon him, dismiss the commissioners, and put a stop 
to the treaty ; and, following their blow, march to London, 
place regiments of foot at the parliament-house door, and as 
the members came up, seize upon all those whom they had 
down in a list as promoters of the settlement and treaty, and 
would not suffer them to sit ; but the rest, who being of their 
own stamp, are permitted to go on, carry on the designs of 
the army, revive their votes of non-addresses to the king, and 
then, upon the army's petition, to bring all delinquents to 
justice, the mask was thrown off; by the word all is declared 
to be meant the king, as well as every man else they pleased. 
It is too sad a story, and too much a matter of grief to me, 
and to all good men, to renew the blackness of those days, 
when law and justice was under the feet of power ; the army 
ruled the parliament, the private officers their generals, the 
common soldiers their officers, and confusion was in every 
part of the government. In this hurry they sacrificed their 
king, and shed the blood of the English nobility without 
mercy. 

The history of the times will supply the particulars which 
I omit, being willing to confine myself to my own accounts 
and observations : I was now no more an actor, but a melan- 
choly observer of the misfortunes of the times. I had given 
my parole not to take up arms against the parliament, and I 
saw nothing to invite me to engage on their side ; I saw a 
world of confusion in all their councils, and I always ex- 
pected that in a chain of distractions, as it generally falls out, 
the last link would be destruction ; and though I pretended 



REMARKS AND OBSERVATIONS. 235 

to no prophecy, yet the progress of affairs have brought it to 
pass, and I have seen Providence, who suffered, for the 
correction of this nation, the sword to govern and devour us, 
has at last brought destruction by the sword, upon the head 
of most of the party who first drew it. 

If, together with the brief account of what concern I had 
in the active part of the war, I leave behind me some of my 
own remarks and observations, it may be pertinent enough to 
my design, and not unuseful to posterity. 

1. I observed, by the sequel of things, that it maybe some 
excuse to the first parliament, who began this war, to say that 
they manifested their designs were not aimed at the monarchy, 
nor their quarrel at the person of the king ; because, when 
they had him in their power, though against his will, they 
would have restored both his person and dignity as a king, 
only loading it with such clogs of the people's power as they 
at first pretended to, viz., the militia, and power of naming the 
great officers at court, and the like ; which powers, it was 
never denied, had been stretched too far in the beginning of 
this king's reign, and several things done illegally, which his 
majesty had been sensible of, and was willing to rectify; but 
they having obtained the power by victory, resolved so to 
secure themselves, as that, whenever they laid down their arms, 
the king should not be able to do the like again ; and thus 
far they were not to be so much blamed, and we did not, on 
our own part, blame them, when they had obtained the power, 
for parting with it on good terms. 

But when I have thus far advocated for the enemies, I must 
be very free to state the crimes of this bloody war, by the 
events of it. It is manifest there were among them, from the 
beginning, a party who aimed at the very root of the govern- 
ment, and at the very thing which they brought to pass, viz., 
the deposing and murdering of their sovereign ; and, as the 
devil is always master where mischief is the work, this party 
prevailed, turned the other out of doors, and overturned all 
that little honesty that might be in the first beginning of this 
unhappy strife. 

The consequence of this was, the presbyterians saw their 
error when it was too late, and then would gladly have joined 
the royal party, to have suppressed this new leaven, which 
had infected the lump ; and this is very remarkable, that most 
of the first champions of this war, who bore the brunt of it 



236 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

when the king was powerful and prosperous, and when there 
was nothing to be got by it but blows, first or last, were so ill 
used by this independent powerful party, who tripped up the 
heels of all their honesty, that they were either forced by ill 
treatment, to take up arms on our side, or suppressed and re- 
duced by them. In this the justice of Providence seemed very 
conspicuous, that these having pushed all things by violence 
against the king, and by arms and force brought him to their 
will, were at once both robbed of the end, their church-govern- 
ment, and punished for drawing their swords against their 
masters, by their own servants drawing the sword against 
them ; and God in his due time, punished the others too ; and, 
what was yet farther strange, the punishment of this crime of 
making war against their king, singled out those very men, 
both in the army and in the parliament, who were the greatest 
champions of the presbyterian cause in the council and in the 
field. Some minutes too of circumstances I cannot forbear 
observing, though they are not very material, as to the fatality 
and revolutions of days and times. 

A Roman catholic gentleman of Lancashire, a very religious 
man in his way, who had kept a calculate of times, and had 
observed mightily the fatality of times, places, and actions, 
being at my father's house, was discoursing once upon the 
just judgment of God in dating his providences, so as to signify 
to us his displeasure at particular circumstances ; and, among 
an infinite number of collections he had made, these were 
some which I took particular notice of, and from whence I 
began to observe the like : 

1. That King Edward the Vlth died the very same day 
of the same month in which he caused the altar to be taken 
down, and the image of the blessed Virgin, in the cathedral 
of St. Paul's. 

2. That Cranmer was burnt at Oxford the same day and 
month that he gave King Henry the VHIth advice to divorce 
his queen Catherine. 

3. That Queen Elizabeth died the same day and month 
that she resolved, in her privy council, to behead the Queen 
of Scots. 

4. That King James died the same day that he published 
his book against Bellarmine. 

5. That King Charles's long parliament, which ruined him, 
began the very same day and month which that parliament 



COMPARATIVE VISITATIONS OP PROVIDENCE. 237 

began, that, at the request of his predecessor, robbed the 
Roman church ot all her revenues, and suppressed abbeys 
and monasteries. 

How just his calculations were, or how true the matter of 
fact, I cannot tell, but it put me upon the same in several 
actions and successes of this war. 

And I found a great many circumstances, as to time or 
action, which befell both his majesty and his parties first. 

Then others which befell the parliament and presbyterian 
faction which raised the war. 

Then the independent tyranny which succeeded and sup- 
planted the first party. 

Then the Scots who acted on both sides. 

Lastly, The restoration and re-establishment of the loyalty 
and religion of our ancestors. 

1. For King Charles the First; it is observable, that the 
charge against the Earl of Strafford, a thing which his majesty 
blamed himself for all the days of his life, and at the moment 
of his last suffering, was first read in the lords' house on the 
30th of January, the same day of the month six years that 
the king himself was brought to the block. 

2. That the king was carried away prisoner from Newark, 
by the Scots, May 10th, the same day six years that, against 
his conscience and promise, he passed the bill of attainder 
against the loyal noble Earl of Strafford. 

3. The same day seven years that the king entered the 
house of commons for the five members, which all his friends 
blamed him for, the same day the rump voted bringing 
his majesty to trial, after they had set by the lords for 
not agreeing to it, which was the 3rd of January, 1648. 

4. The 12th of May, 1646, being the surrender of Newark, 
the parliament held a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing, for 
the reduction of the king and his party, and finishing the 
war, which was the same day five years that the Earl ot 
Strafford was beheaded. 

5. The battle of Naseby, which ruined the king's affairs, and 
where his secretary and his office was taken, was the 14th 
of June, the same day and month the first commission was 
given out by his majesty to raise forces. 

6. The aueen voted a traitor bv the parliament the 3rd of 



238 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIEE. 

May, the same day and month she carried the jewels into 
France. 

7. The same day the king defeated Essex in the west, his 
son King Charles II. was defeated at Worcester. 

8. Archbishop Laud's house at Lambeth assaulted by the 
mob, the same day of the same month that he advised the 
king to make war upon the Scots. 

9. Impeached the 15th of December, 1640, the same day 
twelvemonth that he ordered the Common Prayer Book of 
Scotland to be printed, in order to be imposed upon the Scots ; 
from which all our troubles began. 

But many more, and more strange, are the critical junctures 
of affairs in the case of the enemy, or at least more observed 
by me. 

1. Sir John Hotham, who repulsed his majesty, and 
refused him admittance into Hull before the war, was seized 
at Hull by the same parliament for whom he had done it, the 
same 10th day of August two years that he drew the first 
blood in that war. 

2. Hampden, of Buckinghamshire, killed the same day one 
year that the mob petition from Bucks was presented to the 
king about him, as one of the five members. 

3. Young Captain Hotham executed the first of January, 
the same day that he assisted Sir Thomas Fairfax in the first 
skirmish with the king's forces at Bramham-moor. 

4. The same day and month, being the 6th of August, 
1641, that the parliament voted to raise an army against the 
king, the same day and month, anno 1648, the parliament 
were assaulted and turned out of doors by that very army, 
and none left to sit but who the soldiers pleased, which were 
therefore called the Rump. 

5. The Earl of Holland deserted the king, who had made 
him general of the horse, and went over to the parliament ; 
and the 9th of March, 1641, carried the commons' reproaching 
declaration to the king ; and afterwards, taking up arms for 
the king against the parliament, was beheaded by them the 
9th of March, 1648, just seven years after. 

6. The Earl of Holland was sent to by the king to come 
to his assistance, and refused, the 11th of July, 1641, and 
that very day seven years after was taken by the parliament 
at St. Needs. 



COMPARATIVE VISITATIONS OF PROVIDENCE. 23^ 

7. Colonel Massey defended Gloucester against the king, 
and beat him off the 5th of September, 1643 ; was taken after 
by Cromwell's men fighting for the king, on the 5th of Sep- 
tember, 1651, two or three days after the fight at Worcester. 

8. Richard Cromwell resigning because he could not help 
it, the parliament voted a free commonwealth, without a 
single person or house of lords ; this was the 25th of May, 
1658 ; the 25th of May 1660, the king landed at Dover, and 
restored the government of a single person and house of lords. 

9. Lambert was proclaimed a traitor by the parliament, 
April the 20th, being the same day he proposed to Oliver 
Cromwell to take upon him the title of king. 

10. Monk being taken prisoner at Nantwich by Sir 
Thomas Fairfax, revolted to the parliament ; the same day 
nineteen years he declared for the king, and thereby restored 
the royal authority. 

11. The parliament voted to approve of Sir John Hotham's 
repulsing the king at Hull, the 28th of April, 1642 ; the 28th 
of April 1660, the parliament first debated in the house the 
restoring the king to the crown. 

12. The agitators of the army formed themselves into a 
cabal, and held their first meeting to seize upon the king's 
person, and take him into their custody from Holmby, the 
28th of April, 1647; the same day, 1660, the parliament 
voted the agitators to be taken into custody, and committed 
as many of them as could be found. 

13. The parliament voted the queen a traitor for assisting 
her husband, the king, May the 3rd 1643; her son, King 
Charles II. was presented with the votes of parliament to 
restore him, and the present of 50,000Z. the 3rd of May, 1660. 

14. The same day the parliament passed the act for recog- 
nition of Oliver Cromwell, October 13th, 1654, Lambert 
broke up the parliament, and set up the army, 1659, Oc- 
tober the 13th. 

Some other observations I have made, which, as not so 
pertinent, I forbear to publish ; among which I have noted 
the fatality of some days to parties, as, 

The 2nd of September, the fight at Dunbar ; the fight at 
Worcester ; the oath against a single person past ; Oliver's 
first parliament called : for the enemy. 



240 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 

The 2nd of September, Essex defeated in Cornwall ; O.iver 
died ; city works demolished : for the king. 

The 29th of May, Prince Charles born ; Leicester taken 
by storm ; king Charles II. restored : ditto. 

Fatality of circumstances in this unhappy war, as, 

1. The English parliament call in the Scots, to invade 
their king, and are invaded themselves by the same Scots, in 
defence of the king, whose case, and the design of the parlia- 
ment, the Scots had mistaken. 

2. The Scots, who unjustly assisted the parliament to 
conquer their lawful sovereign, contrary to their oath of 
allegiance, and without any pretence on the king's part, are 
afterwards absolutely conquered and subdued by the same 
parliament they assisted. 

3. The parliament, who raised an army to depose their 
king, deposed by the very army- they had raised. 

4. The army broke three parliaments, and are at last broke 
by a free parliament, and all they had done by the military 
power, undone at once by the civil. 

5. Abundance of the chief men, who, by their fiery spirits, 
involved the nation in a civil war, and took up arms against 
their prince, first or last, met with ruin or disgrace from their 
own party: 

1. Sir John Hotham and his son, who struck the first 
stroke, both beheaded or hanged by the parliament. 

2. Major-General Massey three times taken prisoner by 
them, and once wounded at Worcester. 

3. Major- General Langhorn, 4. Colonel Poyer, and, 5. 
Colonel Powell changed sides, and, at last taken, could obtain 
no other favour than to draw lots for their lives ; Colonel 
Poyer drew the dead lot, and was shot to death. 

6. Earl of Holland, who, when the house voted who 
should be reprieved, Lord Goring, who had been their worst 
enemy, or the Earl of Holland, who, excepting one offence, 
had been their constant servant, voted Goring to be spared, 
and the earl to die. 

7. The Earl of Essex, their first general. 

8. Sir William Waller. 

9. Lieutenant-General Ludlow. 

10. The Earl of Manchester. 



ERRORS OF THE KING AND HIS FRIENDS. 241 

All disgusted and voted out of the army, though they had 
stood the first shock of the war, to make way for the new 
model of the army, and introduce a party. 

In all these confusions I have observed two great errors, 
one of the king, and one of his friends. 

Of the king, that, when he was in their custody, and at 
their mercy, he did not comply with their propositions of 
peace, before their army, for want of employment, fell into 
heats and mutinies ; that he did not at first grant the Scots 
their own conditions, which, if he had done, he had gone 
into Scotland ; and then, if the English would have fought 
the Scots for him, he had a reserve of his loyal friends, who 
would have had room to have fallen in with the Scots to his 
assistance, who were after dispersed and destroyed in small 
parties attempting to serve him. 

While his majesty remained at Newcastle, the queen wrote 
to him, persuading him to make peace upon any terms; and, 
in politics, her majesty's advice was certainly the best; for, 
however low he was brought by a peace, it must have been 
better than the condition he was then in. 

The error I mention of the king's friends was this, that, 
after they saw all was lost, they could not be content to sit 
still, and reserve themselves for better fortunes, and wait the 
happy time when the divisions of the enemy would bring 
them to certain ruin ; but must hasten their own miseries by 
frequent fruitless risings, in the face of a victorious enemy, 
in small parties ; and I always found these effects from it : 

1. The enemy, who were always together by the ears, when 
they were let alone, were united and reconciled when we 
gave them any interruption ; as, particularly, in the case of 
the first assault the army made upon them, when Colonel 
Pride, with his regiment, garbled the house, as they called 
it : at that time, a fair opportunity offered, but it was omitted 
till it was too late. That insult upon the house had been 
attempted the year before, but was hindered by the little 
insurrections of the royal party, and the sooner they had 
fallen out the better. 

2. These risings being desperate, with vast disadvantages, 
and always suppressed, ruined all our friends ; the remnants 
of the cavaliers were lessened, the stoutest and most daring 
were cut off, and the king's interest exceedingly weakened, 
there not being less than thirty thousand of his best friends 

VOL. H. R 



242 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. 

cut off in the several attempts made at Maidstone, Colchester, 
Lancashire, Pembroke, Pontefract, Kingston, Preston, War- 
rington, Worcester, and other places. Had these men all 
reserved their fortunes to a conjunction with the Scots, at 
either of the invasions they made into this kingdom, and 
acted with the conduct and courage they were known masters 
of, perhaps neither of those Scots' armies had been defeated. 

But the impatience of our friends ruined all ; for my part, 
I had as good a mind to put my hand to the ruin of the 
enemy as any of them ; but I never saw any tolerable ap- 
pearance of a force able to match the enemy, and I had no 
mind to be beaten and then hanged. Had we let them alone, 
they would have fallen into so many parties and factions, and 
so effectually have torn one another to pieces, that which- 
soever party had come to us, we should, with them, have 
been too hard for all the rest. 

This was plain by the course, of things afterwards, when 
the independent army had ruffled the presbyterian parliament, 
the soldiery of that party made no scruple to join us, and 
would have restored the king with all their hearts ; and many 
of them did join us at last. 

And the consequence, though late, ended so, for they fell 
out so many times, army and parliament, parliament and 
army, and alternately pulled one another down so often, till 
at last the presbyterians, who began the war, ended it ; and, 
to be rid of their enemies, rather than for any love to the 
monarchy, restored King Charles the Second, and brought him 
in on the very day that they themselves had formerly resolved 
the ruin of his father's government, being the 29 th of May, 
the same day twenty years that the private cabal in London 
concluded their secret league with the Scots, to embroil his 
father King Charles the First. 



243 



NOTES. 



Note I. Page 31. 

The Protestant diet at Leipsic was begun Feb. 8, 1630, and continued 
to April 3, 1631. Four principal reasons were assigned for the con- 
gress. " The first of these four was this : That whereas the Duke of 
Saxony had, in the time of the diet of Frankfort, written advice unto the 
emperour, of the King of Sweden's approaching, the emperour tells him 
againe, how he hoped that himselfe (Saxon) and Brandenburg would well 
aide him. By which answer, Saxony perceived a new bill of charges 
comming upon the Protestants next those parts where the King of Sweden 
was landed. The second was this : The round course taken by the em- 
perour for the recovery of the church-lands. A third was this: That 
rigide course (taken by advice of the Jesuites) for reformation of the Pro- 
testant churches and schooles, and the forbidding of the libertie of the 
Augustane Confession. The fourth was, that decree of the emperour's for 
the continuance of the warres against the King of Sweden." — The Swedish 
Intelligencer, Part I. London, 1634. 4. p. 20. 

Note II. Page 32, penult line. 

Of these levies the Elector of Saxony was to raise six regiments ; Bran- 
denburgh three ; each of the circles of Swabia, the Rhine, and Franconia, 
three ; Lower Saxony one. Each regiment of foot was to consist of three 
thousand, and of horse one thousand. — lb. p. 28. 

Note III. Page 34. 

The storming of Magdeburg by John Tsercla, Count of Tilly, has always 
been considered as one of the most horrible butcheries which occurred in 
any war ; and has only been paralleled by the conquerors of Ishmail and 
Warsaw, in our days. The anniversary is still commemorated by the 
inhabitants ; and their panic, during the late disgraceful siege, was con- 
siderably increased by the recollection. The following is the account of 
the siege in the Swedish Intelligencer : " Upon the 12th of April, Tilly 
first presents himselfe in full battaglia within a mile of the city ; at which 
time believed it was, that he would at least have fallen upon the great star- 
sconce, or toll-house, by the old Elbe ; but that day attempted he no 
more, than to beat some guards out of their redoubts into the city. The 
13th he laies his siege; himself, Pappenheim, Savelli, Holstein, and Mans- 
feldt, round begirting it. This done, twelve pieces of cannon are placed 
against the bridge over the Elbe, upon which he made five hundred and 
sixty-eight shot that same day; his intent being to cut that passage off, that 
the town by it might send no succours to the foresaid sconce, or toll-house; 
but the General Falkenburg conveniently flanking some paces upon the 

K 2 



244 NOTES. 

toll-house, quite at last dismantled the enemies cannon. This not suc- 
ceeding, Tilly tails pell-mell at once upon both these places, giving eight- 
several assaults unto them : but the Lord Falkenburg, with four whole 
cannon double charged with stones, old iron, &c, about twelve o'clocke at 
night, made them to give over. Some prisoners the next day taken, con- 
fesse there were two thousand men that day slain of the assailants. This 
toll-house was a notable piece of fortification,* built on the other side the 
Elbe. To this Tilly now turned all his battery ; heere he falls to myning, 
and all to no purpose. On the 15th, both by land and water he layes at 
it ; but three hundred muskettiers being by him sent in boates to assaile 
it on the water's side, were by those of the fort driven ashoare, and either 
all drownd or slaine by the citizens ; two hundred also at the same time 
lost their lives on the land side. Now was there newes brought into 
Tillie's campe, of the King of Sweden's being upon his march, for the 
relieving of the besieged ; a council of warre thereupon being called, some 
troups are sent towards Wittenberg and the Dessau bridge, there to stave 
off the king's forces. The newes of his coming againe slackning, April 21, 
to worke he fals againe ; and giving on upon the toll-house, that notable 
piece is forsaken by the Magdeburgers ; who, at their retreate, offring to 
fire it, the place was rescued by the Imperialists. Upon this, were all the 
forts on that side of the Elbe, either taken or given over ; the bridge also 
by Tilly burned, and approaches made unto the city ; which was from 
thence immediately battered. Now were the besieged forced to burne 
their own New Towne; where two thousand Imperialists immediately 
lodging themselves, fell to mining, and shooting of grenadoes into the city. 
The 29th, by a sally out upon these in the New Towne, are some one 
hundred slaine. The mynes doe no hurt, until one Farenback, a notable 
enginer, takes them in hand ; who sappes himselfe under the towne- 
ditches to the very hard wals, which he much shakes, by springing of a 
mine; in return of which service and some others, the emperor makes 
him a colonell, granting him commission to raise two new regiments. 
May 2. The Imperialists in the new city, having suddenly in the n ; ght- 
time cast up a battery, shrewdly punish the besieged. May 7. General 
Tilly comes himselfe into the New Towne, together with Pappenheim, 
then generall of the ordnance, and the Count of Schomberg, sergeant- 
major-generall; and a great shew of ladders is made, as if there were a 
purpose of a general scaladoe. Tillie's hope was, that the towne would 
presently parly, upon sight of these preparations ; but they taking the 
alarme at it, instantly manne all their bulwarks. The 8th day is spent in 
shooting at a certain high tower, from which the towne-cannon much 
plagued the besiegers. This day Tilly sends a trumpet to summon the 
towne; they send another to him to signify their willingness to yield, 
might but their administrator still enjoy his bishopricke, and the towne 
their priviledges. This not consented to, the 9th day Pappenheim at- 
tempting to scale the wals, is by a sally beaten off; in which some of the 
enemies' mines being discovered, are by countermines in the towne defeated. 
That day is another trumpet sent into the towne. Towards evening, was 
there much bustling observed, and carriages to and againe in the enemies 

* It is still one of the strongest fortifications belonging to the town, 
and denominated Stern- Schanze. 



NOTES. 245 

leaguer : yea, they were perceived to rise with their whole army (as the 
towne thought), and to march to Offensleben, half a mile from them. All 
that night was the Lord Falkenburg upon the wals ; who perceiving in the 
morning no danger of assault, cals the city together into the state-house, 
to give answer to the enemies trumpet ; yea, so secure they were, that the 
over-watcht souldiers are suffered to go from their courts of guarde to take 
some sleepe ; and some say, that the townesmen were gone to church to 
give God thanks for their deliverance from the siege. Thus, the wals being 
found empty, about 7 on the Tuesday morning, May 10th, Pappenheim 
having given the word, Jesu-Maria, to his souldiers, and a white string 
about their armes, makes towards the Heideker port ; where, having thrown 
turfs and faggots into the ditch to fill it, thorow it, up to the middle, the 
Imperialists runne, with scaling ladders upon their backs. The walls are 
in a trice mounted, the towne entered, and the souldiers fall to killing. 
Falkenberg now flying in upon them, beates them back to the very wals 
againe ; but a port being by this tyme opened, and the enemies horse let 
in, the valiant Falkenberg is slayne with a shot ; the administrator hurt 
both in the thigh and head, and so taken. Whilst all thus goes to wraike, 
a mighty fire breakes out (how, none knowes), and it being a great windy 
day, all was on the sudden become one great flame, the whole towne being 
in twelve houres space utterly burnd to cinders, excepting a hundred and 
thirty-nine houses. Six goodly churches are burnt : the cathedrall. 
together with St. Marie's church and cloister, were by the monkes and 
souldiers diligently preserved. Twenty thousand people, at least, were 
killed, burned, and smoothered ; syxe thousand being observed to be 
drowned in the Elbe. Tilly's Wallons* would give quarter to few ; and 
the Crabatsf never used to give or beg any; so that all were killed. 
May 12th, came Tilly into the towne, and finding some hundreds of 
women and children in the church, he gives them their fives, and some 
bread too ; next day he forbids pillaging. Upon Sunday, May 1 5th, 
because he would have this cathedrall as like to Rome as might be, that 
is, dedicated in blood ; he causes it to be cleansed and new consecrated ; 
masse and Te Deum being sung in it, in thanksgiving for the victory. 
Future ages may perhaps compare the destruction of this goodly city unto 
that of Troy or of Jerusalem/'— p. 116-119. 

Note IV. Page 41. 

The accession of King James to the throne of England, and the sub- 
sequent pacification of the borders and Highlands, had not destroyed the 
restless and impatient valour of the Scots. When the war in Germany 
broke out, several chieftains raised regiments chiefly at their own expense. 
Among these was Sir Houcheon Mackay, who had often been proceeded 
against for his predatory incursions into Sutherland. Upon his return 
from Germany, he was, for his services, created Lord Reay. Various 
methods of raising recruits were employed, and the following curious song, 

* Soldiers raised in the Netherlands. 

f The Croats, who rendered themselves so famous in the Seven Years' 
War, and were by Joseph II. very impoliticly formed into regular regi- 



246 NOTES. 

printed from on ancient MS., contributed probably not a little to increase 
the number of volunteers : 

All brave lads that would haisard for honour, 

Hark ! how Bellona her trumpet doth blow ; 
Mars, with many a warlike banner, 

Bravely displayed invits yow to go ! 
Germani, Suedden, Denmarke, are smoking 
With a crew of brave lads others provoking, 

All in their armour bright, 

Daisling great Cesars sight, 

Summons you to ane fight ! Tan la ra ra. 

O, Viva ! Viva ! Gustavus we cry ! 

Heir we shall either won honour or dye. 

Thow that riseth before the day dawning, 

Mounted ere Phoebus saluteth the morne, 

Yoffing, crying, youlling, yelling, 

Lyk ane citie swyne summonds out with an home. 

What honour canst thou gain by thy conquisht attending, 

When thou hes brought a poor baist to her ending ? 

Please your yelping hounds, 

And hear our martial sounds, 

Till al the hills resounds : Tan la ra ra ! 

Fy, boyes 1 fy, boyes ! leave it not there, 

For honour is not gotten by hounting the hair. 

Thou fyne thing, that still art resorting, 

In princes pallaces deckt up like an ap, 
Flattering, fawning, cringing, and courting, 

Changing each moment in a new munkish shape ; 
Thinkest thow that a denti thing, or a fyne galliard, 
Or that my laidies glov honours appallart, 

Or Madams sqwivering voice, 

Or such a fidling noice, 

Sounding like, Sa Sa boyes ! Tan la ra ra ! 

Up lads ! up lads ! up and advance, 

For honour is not gotten by a cringe or a dance. 

Thow that on thy pillow lyes sleiping, 

Pampert with pleasures, and pufft up with pride, 
And in thy armes a wanton keeping 

Thinking ther is no heavns besyd, 
Slave to the womens lust, when thou doeth mount her, 
What honour canst thou gain by thy raincounter ? 

Shame to the shall remain, 

When we shall honour gain, 

Where many a hero's slain ! Tan ta ra ra. 

Fy, man ! fy, man ! leave it for shame, 
For honour is not gotten by so easie a gain. 
All brave lads, raise up yovr spirits ! 
Honour abydeth you attendit by fame ; 



NOTES. 247 

Men are rewarded according to their merits 

Honour begeteth that winneth the same. 
Vivat, Gustavus ! I pray God protekt him, 
And send the devill to the colstreat, for it doth expect him ! 

Charge lads ! fall in a round, 

Till Cesar shall give ground. 

Hark, hark ! our trumpets sound. Tan ta ra ra ! 

Vivat Gustavus Adolphus ! we cry, 
Here we shall either wone honour or dy. 

At Frankfort upon the Oder, Colonells Hepburn and Lumsdell, men- 
tioned in the text, performed prodigies of valour. " The king calling the 
valiant Sir John Hebron (Hepburn) and Colonell Lumsdell unto him, 
' Now, my brave Scots (saies he), remember your countrymen slaine at 
New Brandenburg.' Lumsdell, therefore, with his regiment of English 
and Scots, and Hebron, with his High Dutchers, presse upon that sally 
port, and the enemies bullets flying as thick as hail, Lumsdell, with his 
drawne sword in his hand, cries, e Let's enter, my hearts ! ' thrusting him- 
self in amongst the thickest of them. His men followes resolutely, the 
pikes first entring ; all knocking down the enemies most pitifully ; for the 
inner port being shut behind them, they had no way to escape, but the 
little clicket-gate ; through which as many as could crept into the towne. 
And by this time the greater gate being broke open, Hebron and 
Lumsdell, entering with their men, make a most pittifull slaughter ; and 
when any imperialist cryed, ' Quarter !' ' New Brandenburg ! ' cries the 
other, and knocks him down. One Scotchman protested he had killed 
eighteen men with his owne hand. Here did Lumsdell take eighteen 
colours ; yea, such testimony shewed he of his valour, that the king, after 
the battell, bade him aske what he would, and he would give it him. Sir 
John Hepburn, shewing extraordinary valour, was here hurt in the 
legge." — Swedish Intelligencer, ut supra, p. 90. 

Note V. Page 63. 

The account of the siege and surrender of Oppenheim corresponds pretty 
accurately with that given in the work we have had occasion to quote so 
frequently, excepting in so far as respects the cavalier himself. During 
the storming of the castle [p. 65], "fell there out a pretty merriment, 
which some readers may perchance be pleased withall. Whilest the most 
of the Spannish were begging for quarter, a certaine officer, with some 
others of his men, not daring to trust the courtesy of an enemy, fairly slips 
away from the Scots that had so ferryted them, running out of the towne 
for life, even close beside the king's army. It chanced that a hare, start- 
ing out of the bushes about the ditch, ranne directly before the Spaniards, 
and, within a few paces after, two or three other hares, also ranne as 
directly after them. The Swedish soldiers laughed heartily to see, what a 
convoy the Spaniards had gotten. 'Tis ill luck (saies one of their souldiers), 
to have one's way crost with a hare ; and that ill lucke is now ours, for we 
are likely to get but little honour by them, should all their countrimen run 
away in the like manner." — Ibid P. II. p. 47 



248 NOTES. 



Note VI. Page 68. 

The siege of Creutznach was most obstinately contested, and the des- 
perate valour of William, first Lord Craven, was such, that, on his coming 
into the King of Sweden's presence, his majesty told him, ' he adventured 
so desperately, he bid his younger brother fair play for his estate.' In 
162G he had been created Lord Craven of Hamstead Marshall, county 
Berks. In 1637 he was, along with Prince Rupert, taken prisoner, and, 
on obtaining his liberty, served the States of Holland, under the Prince 
of Orange. The 16th of March, an. 16 Car. II. he was created Earl 
Craven, of Craven, county Ebor. In 1670 he was appointed Colonel of 
the Coldstream regiment of guards. When King James II. endeavoured 
to take it away from him, ' If they took away his regiment, they had as 
good take away his life, since he had nothing else to divert himself with.' 
He was, however, obliged to give it up, at King William's accession, to the 
crown. He died April 9, 1597, aged eighty-eight years and ten months. 

Note VII. Page 76. 

This celebrated bridge is described at full length in the Swedish 
Intelligencer. It was framed by the Swedes, who acted as carpenters, 
and the Fins as pioneers. The following. note is singular; but the extra- 
ordinary valour of the Swedes, even in the present day, must make us 
hesitate how far we should believe the insinuations against them ; though 
the Fins are well known to be a pusillanimous people. "The Swedes 
generally, one with another, are all carpenters ; and the Fins, being a 
plain, simple, and droyling kinde of people, are more used for the spade 
than for the sword ; notwithstanding we have heard so much of the great 
exployts of these Finlanders. The Swedes and Finlanders, plainly, are 
not the best souldiers of the army; 'tis the Scots and Germanes that have 
done it; and yet have both the other done their parts also." — P. II. 
p. 142. Marginal Note. — De Foe, in this part, as well as in many others, 
has made great use of this interesting work. The account of the bridge 
and the battle, as well as of the supposed means by which Tilly might 
have gained the battle, eorrespond together accurately in both works. 
" When Cardinall Passman, the emperor's ambassadour with the Pope, 
had the first newes brought him of this victory, and of the manner of it, 
he to his friends pronounced, Actum est, ' There is an end of all ;' which 
some interpreted to be meant of the empire and of the Romish religion." 
— " And yet had not the king escaped so cheap as with the lives of two 
thousand brave men ; had not he that directed David's sling-stone into 
Goliah's forehead, guided one bullet into Altringer's forehead, and another 
into Tilly's thigh-bone ; had not this brave old count beene thus spoyled, 
the king had found but an unfriendly welcome into Bavaria," &c. — Ibid. 
p. 148. Tilly is one of the numerous list of imperial generals, who were 
frequently unfortunate, yet still acquired a high reputation, such as 
Wallenstein, Daun, Melas, &c. 

Note VIII. Page 82. 

The conditions under which the celebrated Wallenstein, Duke of 
Friedland, took the charge of generalissimo of the army were most 
peremptory. He wa3 to be generalissimo for life, and that in the most 



NOTES. 249 

absolute manner, for the emperor, the king of Spain, and the whole house 
of Austria. The emperor should not be present at the ,army, much less 
have any command over it ; the free liberty of confiscating and pardoning 
the countries he conquered was stipulated for by him : the duchy of 
Mecklenburg, with other dominions, were promised to him, &c. 

Note IX. Page 83. 

"The king had now 132 ensignes of foot, which made up 10,767, in 
the musterbooke; and 152 troops of horse, which came to 7,676. In 
all 18,443 men." — Swedish Intelligencer, P. II. p. 140. 

Note X. Page 92. 

The celebrated victory of Lutzen was gained on the 6th of November, 
1632, old style. In the Swedish Intelligencer, a long account of it is 
introduced, consisting of 48 quarto pages. The king previously harangued 
the Swedes and Germans, separately, both together consisting of seven- 
teen thousand or eighteen thousand men. The watchword of his army 
was, Gott mit uns, God with us ; that of the imperialists, Jesus Maria. 
Both the armies had had the same in the great battle of Leipsic. The 
king, in the midst of the battle, had charged a numerous body of 
cuirassiers, but, they being too powerful, he was forced to retreat, and 
wounded in the left arm. As he was carried off the field, a cuirassier 
who knew him came behind him, and, crying out, "This is the right 
bird," shot him through the body ; but was immediately killed himself, by 
Luchan, the king's master of the horse. The king's body was forced to 
be abandoned, and he was stript of everything about him by the imperial 
soldiers, who were anxious to have a relic of so renowned a commander. 
It is well known that afterwards the body of the king was recovered, and 
a most complete victory gained. One of the best imperial commanders, 
Count Pappenheim, was slain by a bullet from a falconet. He had, 
previous to the battle, taken the sacrament, confessed, and made this 
short testament. His soul he commended to God ; his body (if he were 
slain), to the emperor, and his wife and children to Wallenstein. The 
imperialists vauntingly claimed the victory, but acknowledged that the 
king of Sweden was the bravest enemy, and the best captain, that ever 
was in Christendom. A stone pillar, to the north of the town of Lutzen, 
still marks the spot where he fell. 

Note XI. Page 99. 

In this disastrous battle, the Swedish veteran, General Gustavus Home, 
with Field-Marshal Gratz, and two other generals, were taken prisoners ; 
and several generals and superior officers killed. The defeat would have 
been still more complete, if the Rhinegrave Otto Ludwig, with his forces, 
had not approached, and prevented the pursuit of the Swedes, by the 
cavalry and Croats. 

Note XII. Page 107. 
The Earl of Holland entered Berwick with the king, May 30, 1639,, 
and the 31st he marched with two hundred horse to Dunse. " Upon the 



250 NOTES. 

coming of our forces into the town [the expected Scots army was not to 
be found, but] the people cryed, ' God bless the king/ and that they 
were all his majesty's obedient subjects, and readily brought forth their 
Scots ale and what they had, to bid the English welcome." Rushworth's 
Collections, vol. II. p. 929. June 3, the earl again entered into Scotland, 
with four thousand horse, but retired before the numbers of the Scots, 
and the superior skill of the Scottish general, Lesley. 

Note XIII. Page 115. 

The 27th of August, 1640, at night, General Lesley arrived within a 
mile of Newcastle, and finding it garrisoned, marched the next morning to 
Newburn-ford, where he found the pass defended with strong works and 
six cannon, and guarded with three thousand horse and twelve hundred 
foot. He placed his own ordnance upon an adjoining hill, and so harassed 
the English foot, that they fled in disorder, and abandoned then* cannon. 
The horse attempted to rescue them, but were put to flight by Colonel 
Lesley, with about fifteen hundred horse. Upon this occasion, the cele- 
brated gentleman-troop of Sir John Suckling was routed, and some of his 
horses taken. 

Note XIV. Page 125. 

Robert Bertie, Earl of Lindsay, was eldest son of Peregrine Lord 
Willoughby, of Eresby, a celebrated worthy of Queen Elizabeth's reign. 
He was born in 1582; and, in 1603, succeeded to the office of Lord 
High-chamberlain of England; in 1626 he was created Earl of Lindsay; 
in 1635, appointed Lord High Admiral ; and in 1642, General of the 
king's forces. The same year, 23rd October, he was killed at the battle of 
Edgehill. 

Note XV. Page 125. 

Robert, Earl of Essex, was the only son of the great favourite of Queen 
Elizabeth, and, when young, was married to Lady Frances Howard. His 
divorce from her is well known ; and he retired in disgust from the court 
in consequence of it. He died September 14th, 1646. 

Note XVI. Page 138. 

" Those of ours (the parliamentary army) taken by the enemy were, the 
Lord St. John, who was mortally wounded, and declared, at his death, a 
full satisfaction and cheerfulness to lay down his life for so good a cause ; 
Colonel Walton, a member of parliament ; and Captain Austin, an eminent 
merchant in London ; of whom the last died through the hard usage he 
received in the gaol of Oxford, to which he was committed. It was 
observed, that the greatest slaughter on our side was of such as ran away ; 
and on the enemy's side, of those that stood ; of whom I saw about three- 
score lie within the compass of threescore yards, upon the ground whereon 
that brigade fought in which the king's standard was. — We took prisoners 
.the Earl of Lindsey, general of the king's army, who died of his wounds ; 
Sir Edward Stradling, and Colonel Lunsford, who were sent to Warwick 



NOTES. 251 

Castle." Memoirs of Lieutenant-general Ludlow.* Edin. 1751, p. 44.— 
The king published a declaration to his subjects after the late victory against 
the rebels, which was answered by a similar declaration of the lords and 
commons. 

Note XVII. Page 152. 

After the parliamentary army had possessed themselves of Reading, they 
had several skirmishes with the royalists, in one of which, Hampden, the 
great patriot, lost his life. Sir William Waller engaged the king's western 
army at Lansdown. The Cornish men stood their ground till they came 
to push of pike, but were then routed, and their commander, Sir Bevil 
Grenville, killed. General Ludlow, soon after, joined Waller. " But," 
he says in his own Memoirs, " the great hopes we had conceived of enjoy- 
ing some quiet in the west, by the means of this victory, were soon blasted. 
For a body of horse sent from Oxford, not being attended by any of our 
army (though, as I have heard, commanded so to do), engaged our horse 
at Roundway-hill ; where the overforwardness of some of our party to 
charge the enemy upon disadvantageous ground, was the principal cause of 
their defeat. The horse being routed, our foot quitted their ground, and 
shifted for themselves ; many of whom were taken, and many killed ; the 
rest retreated to Bristol." — Vol. I. p. 54. 

Note XVIII. Page 154. 

" In the mean time, the king's army besieged Gloucester, the king being 
there in person to countenance the siege. The besieged made a vigorous 
defence for about a month ; during which time, the parliament took care 
to recruit their army, in order to relieve them. Their rendezvous was 
appointed on Hounslow-heath ; whither some members of parliament (of 
which my father was one) were sent, to inspect their condition, that their 
wants, being known, might be the better supplied, who found tbem a very 
shattered and broken body ; but the city being then very affectionate to 
the public, soon recruited them ; and drew forth so many of their trained 
bands and auxiliary regiments, as made them up a gallant army. In their 
march to Gloucester, some of ours fell upon a party of the enemy at Ciren- 
cester, of whom they took many prisoners, and seized a great quantity of 
provisions, which they found prepared for the enemy; who, upon our 
approach, raised the siege." — Ibid, p 50. A particular and very circum- 
stantial detail was published of this siege, in quarto, by order of par- 
liament. 

Note XIX. Page 162. 

" The Earl of Essex, having relieved the town of Gloucester, was 
marching back again, when he perceived the enemy endeavouring to get 
between him and London ; and to that end, falling upon his rear with a 
strong party of horse, they so disordered his men, and retarded the march 



* Ludlow's statements, of course, lean towards the side most favourable 
to the party he was engaged in ; but, for this reason, form proper annota- 
tions to those in the text, which are put into the mouth of one of the 
cavalier faction. 



252 NOTES. 

of his army, that he found himself obliged to engage them at Newbury. 
The dispute was very hot on both sides, and the enemy had the better at 
first ; but our men resolving to carry their point, and the city regiments 
behaving themselves with great bravery, gave them, before night, so little 
to boast, that the next morning they were willing to permit the Earl of 
Essex to march to London, without interruption. Few prisoners were 
taken on either side. The enemy had several of quality killed. — We lost 
a colonel of one of the city regiments, together with some inferior officers." 
— Ludlow ut supra, p. 57. 

Note XX. Page 167. 

Alexander Lesley, Earl of Leven, for the first time, evinced his military 
genius as a volunteer in Lord Vere's regiment, in Holland, and afterwards 
went into the service of the great King of Sweden, who appointed him to 
defend the town of Stralsund against the imperialists. — This he accom- 
plished, and obliged the great Wallenstein to retire, though he had 
boasted he would take the town if it were even chained to the firmament. 
In 1630, he drove the imperialists out of Rugen, and then returned home. 
His actions at the head of the Scotch army are, for the most part, detailed 
in the text. In 1641, he was created Earl of Leven, and died at Balgony, 
in Fife, in the year 1662. 

Note XXI. Page 170. 

This heroic lady, was Charlotte, daughter of Claude de la Tremouille, 
Duke of Thouars, Prince of Palmont, &c, and wife of William, sixth Earl 
of Derby, who suffered death in the year 1651, for his loyalty to his king. 
She not only defended successfully Hotham-house, in 1644, but in 1651, 
for a long time, the Isle of Man, which was the last place in the English 
dominions that submitted to the commonwealth. She was detained in 
prison till the restoration ; and died March 21st, 1663. 

Note XXII. Page 172. 

The battle of Marston-moor was fought July 2nd, 1644. Ludlow has 
the following observation, similar to some of our cavalier's : " If Prince 
Rupert, who had acquired honour enough by the relief of York, in the view 
of three generals, could have contented himself with it, and retreated, as he 
might have done, without fighting, the reputation he had gained would have 
caused his army to increase like the rolling of a snow-ball ; but he thinking 
this nothing, unless he might have ably forced his enemies to a battle, 
against the advice of many of those that were with him/' &c. — Vol I. 
p. 107. The country people, it is said, buried four thousand men, of 
which the prince is reported to have lost three thousand. In a letter from 
the parliamentary generals, they state their loss to have been one lieutenant- 
colonel, some few captains, and only two or three hundred men ; which is 
not credible, considering the defeat of one of their wings. — Rushworth, III. 
635-636. 

Note XXIII. Page 203. 

This affair is represented as a very slight skirmish by Ludlow, (I. 104.) 
who hitherto had served under the defeated Sir William Waller. Of the 
parliamentary army, were taken prisoners Colonel Wemys, Lieutenant- 



NOTES. 253 

colonels Baker and Baynes, and several other officers. " Colonel Middleton 
was dismounted amongst the king's forces, of whom one, taking him for a 
commander of their' s, mounted him again, and bid him make haste, and 
kill a roundhead; and so he escaped" — Rushworth, III. 676. 

Note XXIV. Page 208. 

According to Ludlow, the king lost, during the storm, about seventeen 
hundred men ; and those of the town about one hundred. 

Note XXV. Page 212. 

" Being encouraged by his success at Leicester, and with the considera- 
tion that he was to encounter with an unexperienced enemy, upon advice 
that our army was in search of him, the king advanced towards them ; and 
both armies met in the field of Naseby, on the 14th of June, 1645. Some 
days before, one Colonel Vermuyden, an old soldier, who commanded a 
regiment of horse, had laid down hii "ommission j whether through diffi- 
dence of success, or any other tLiS.aeration, I know not, and, in the 
beginning of the engagement, M? : or-general Skipton, the only old soldier 
remaining amongst the chief officers of the army, received a shot in the 
body from one of our own party, as was supposed, unwittingly ; whereby 
he was in a great measure disabled to perform the duty of his place that 
day, though extremely desirous to do it. — Under these discouragements, 
the horse upon our left wing were attacked by those of the enemy's right, 
and beaten back to our cannon ; which were in danger of being taken, our 
foot giving way also : but our rignt wing being strengthened by those of 
our left that were rallied by our officers, fell upon the enemy's left wing ; 
and having broken and repulsed them, resolving to improve the opportunity, 
charged the main body of the king's army ; and, with the assistance of two 
or three regiments of our infantry, entirely encompassed the enemy's body 
of foot ; who, finding themselves deserted by their horse, threw dowi* th ir 
arms, and yielded themselves prisoners. By this means, our horse were at 
leisure to pursue the king, and such as fled with him towards Leicester, 
taking mar p prisoners in the pursuit ; who, with those taken in the field, 
amounted in all to about six thousand, and amongst them, six colonels, 
eight lieutenant-colonels, eighteen majors, seventy lieutenants, eighty 
ensigns, two hundred inferior officers, about a hundred and forty standards 
of horse and foot, the king's footmen and servants, and the whole train of 
artillery and baggage. This victory was obtained with the loss of a very 
few on our side, and not above three or four hundred of the enemy."— 
Ludlow, I. 131. 



END OF THE CAVALIEB. 



MEMOIRS 



CAPTAIN CARLETON. 



PREFACE 

TO 

CABLETON'S IEM0IBS, 

CONTAINING 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES 

OF 

THE EAKL OF PETERBOROUGH. 



From an anecdote in Boswell's Life of Johnson, we are 
referred to the following Memoirs for the best account of the 
military achievements of the Earl of Peterborough. " The 
best account of Lord Peterborough that I have happened to 
meet with, is in Captain Carleton's Memoirs. Carleton was 
descended of an officer who had distinguished himself at the 
siege of Derry.* He was an officer, and, what was rare at 
that time, had some knowledge in engineering. Johnson said 
he had never heard of the book. Lord Elliot had a copy at 
Port Elliot ; but, after a good deal of inquiry, procured a 
copy in London, and sent it to Johnson ; who told Sir Joshua 

* Mackenzie, in his " Narrative of the Siege of Londonderry/ ' mentions 
no officer called Carleton. There is indeed a Colonel Crofton frequently- 
spoken of. But as Carleton himself served in the great Dutch war of 1665, 
we can hardly suppose him descended of a person distinguished by feats 
of arms in 1688. 

vol. n. c 



258 PREFACE. 

Reynolds, that he was going to bed when it came, but was 
so much pleased with it, that he sat up till he read it through, 
and found in it such an air of truth, that he could not doubt 
its authenticity ; adding with a smile, in allusion to Lord 
Elliot's having recently been raised to the peerage, I did not 
think a young lord could have mentioned to me a book in the 
English history that was not known to me." — BoswelVs Life 
of Johnson. 

A short sketch of the life of this celebrated general may be 
no unpleasing introduction to a volume, which derives its 
chief value from narrating his glorious successes. 

Charles Mordaunt, afterwards Earl of Peterborough, was 
born in 1658; and, in June 1675, succeeded to the title of 
Lord Mordaunt and the estate of his family. He was 
educated in the navy, and in his youth served with the 
Admirals Torrington and Narborough in the Mediterranean. 
In 1680 he accompanied the Earl of Plymouth in the expe- 
dition to Tangier, where he distinguished himself against the 
Moors. 

In the succeeding reign, Lord Mordaunt opposed the repeal 
of the Test Act in the House of Lords ; and having thus 
become obnoxious to the court, obtained liberty to go into 
the Dutch service. When he arrived in Holland, he was, as 
we learn from Burnet, amongst the most forward of those 
who advised the Prince of Orange to his grand enterprise. 
But the cold and considerate William saw obstacles, which 
escaped the fiery and enthusiastic Mordaunt ; nor, although 
that prince used his services in the Revolution, does he 
appear to have reposed entire confidence in a character so 
opposite to his own. Yet Mordaunt reaped the reward of 
his zeal, being in 1688 created Earl of Monmouth, lord of 
the bedchamber, and first commissioner of the treasury, which 



PREFACE. 259 

last office he did not long retain. He accompanied William 
in his campaign of 1692 ; and in 1697 succeeded to the title, 
which he has so highly distinguished, by the death of his 
uncle Henry, the second Earl of Peterborough. 

In the first year of Queen Anne's reign, Peterborough was 
to have been sent out as governor-general of Jamaica, but 
the appointment did not take place. In 1705 he was 
appointed general and commander-in-chief of the forces sent 
to Spain, upon the splendid and almost romantic service of 
placing Charles of Austria on the throne of that monarchy. 
The wonders which he there wrought, are nowhere more 
fully detailed than in the single pages of Carleton.* Barcelona 
was taken by a handful of men, and afterwards relieved in 
the face of a powerful enemy, whom Peterborough compelled 
to decamp, leaving their battering artillery, ammunition, 
stores, provisions, and all their sick, and wounded men. He 
drove before him, and finally expelled from Spain, the Duke 
of Anjou, with his army of twenty-five thousand French, 
although his own forces never amounted to half that number. 
All difficulties sunk before the creative power of his genius. 
Doomed as he was, by the infatuated folly of Charles, and by 
the private envy of his enemies at home, to conduct a perilous 
expedition, in a country ill affected to the cause, without sup- 
plies, stores, artillery, reinforcements, or money; he created 
substitutes for all these deficiencies, — even for the last of 
them. He took walled towns with dragoons, and stormed 
the caskets of the bankers of Genoa, without being able to offer 
them security. He gained possession of Catalonia, of the 

* See also the " Earl of Peterborough's Conduct in Spain," by Dr. 
JohnFreind. London, 1707. 

S 2 



260 riiEFACE. 

kingdoms of Valencia, Aragon, and Majorca, with part of 
Murcia and Castile, and thus opened the way for the Earl of 
Galway's marching to Madrid without a blow. Nor was his 
talent at conciliating the natives less remarkable than his 
military achievements. With the feeling of a virtuous, and 
the prudence of a wise man, he restrained the excesses of his 
troops, respected the religion, the laws, even the prejudices 
of the Spaniards ; and heretic as he was, became more popular 
amongst them than the catholic prince whom he was essaying 
to place on their throne. Yet, as Swift has strongly expressed 
it, " the only general, who, by a course of conduct and fortune 
almost miraculous, had nearly put us into possession of the 
kingdom of Spain, was left wholly unsupported, exposed to 
the envy of his rivals, disappointed by the caprices of a young 
unexperienced prince, under the guidance of a rapacious 
German ministry, and at last called home in discontent.*" 
The cause of this strange step it would be tedious here to 
anvestigate. One ostensible reason was, that Peterborough's 
parts were of too lively and mercurial a quality, and that his 
letters showed more wit than became a general ; a common- 
place objection, raised by the dull malignity of common-place 
minds against those whom they see discharging with ease and 
indifference the tasks which they themselves execute (if at 
all) with the sweat of their brow, and in the heaviness of their 
heart. It is no uncommon error of judgment to maintain 
a priori, that a thing cannot possibly be well done, which has 
taken less time in doing than the person passing sentence had 
anticipated. There is also a certain hypocrisy in business, 
whether civil or military, as well as in religion, which they 
wall do well to observe, who, not satisfied with discharging 

* Conduct of the allies. 



PREFACE. 261 

their duty, desire also the good report of men. To the want 
of that grave, serious, business-like deportment, which admits 
of no levity in the exercise of its office ; but especially to the 
envy excited by his success, Britain owed the recall of the 
Earl of Peterborough from Spain, during the full career of 
his victories. The command of the troops devolved on the 
Earl of Galway ; a thorough-bred soldier, as he was called ; 
a sound-headed, steady, solid general, who proceeded, with all 
decency, decorum, and formal attention to the discipline of 
war, to lose the battle of Almanza, and to ruin the whole 
expedition to Spain. 

In June 1710-11, the thanks of the House of Peers were 
returned to the Earl of Peterborough for his services in 
Spain; and the chancellor used these remarkable words in 
expressing them : — " Had your lordship's wise counsels, par- 
ticularly your advice at the council of war in Valencia, been 
pursued in the following campaign, the fatal battle of Almanza, 
and our greatest misfortunes which have since happened in 
Spain, had been prevented, and the design upon Toulon might 
have happily succeeded." 

In the years 1710 and 1711, the earl was employed in 
embassies to Turin, and other courts of Italy, and finally at 
Vienna. He returned from the German capital with such 
expedition, that none of his servants were able to keep 
up with him, but remained scattered in the different towns 
where he had severally outstripped them. He outrode, upon 
this same occasion, several expresses which he had himself 
despatched to announce his motions. Swift at this time 
received a letter from him, dated Hanover, and desiring an 
answer to be sent to him at his country-house in England.* 

* Swift's Journal to Stella, 24th June, 1711. 



262 PREFACE. 

Indeed, Peterborough's characteristic rapidity of travelling 
was about this time celebrated by the dean, in a little poem 
inscribed to him : — 



Mordanto fills the trump of fame, 

The Christian world his deeds proclaim, 

And prints are crowded with his name. 

In journeys he outrides the post, 
Sits up till midnight with his host, 
Talks politics, and gives the toast. 

Knows every prince in Europe's face, 
Flies like a squib from place to place, 
And travels not, but runs a race. 

From Paris Gazette a-la-main, 
This day arrived, without his train, 
Mordanto in a week from Spain. 

A messenger comes all a-reek, 
Mordanto at Madrid to seek ; 
He left the town above a week. 

Nest day the post-boy winds his horn, 
And rides through Dover in the morn : 
Mordanto' s landed from Leghorn. 

Mordanto gallops on alone, 

The roads are with his followers strown, 

This breaks a girth, and that a bone. 

His body active as his mind, 
Returning sound in limb and wind, 
Except some leather lost behind. 



A skeleton in outward figure j 

His meagre corpse, though full of vigour, 

Would halt behind him, were it bigger. 



PREFACE. 263 



So wonderful his expedition, 

When you have not the least suspicion, 

He's with you like an apparition. 

Shines in all climates like a star; 
In senates bold, and fierce in war ; 
A land commander, and a tar. 

Heroic actions early bred in, 

Ne'er to be matched in modern reading, 

But by his namesake, Charles of Sweden. 



Peterborough's haste was, in 1711, probably stimulated by 
the interest he took in the great public discussions on the 
policy of continuing the war with France. He argued in 
the affirmative with great ability, but without success. 
Although a strenuous Whig in principle, he was disliked by 
most of his own party, and greatly caressed in consequence by 
the Tories. After his return to England, he obtained the regi- 
ment of the royal horse guards, and the honours of the garter, 
being installed 4th August, 1713. In November following, we 
find the earl British plenipotentiary to the King of Sicily and 
other Italian potentates ; and in March, 1713-14, he was ap- 
pointed governor of the island of Minorca. 

Under George I. and George II. the Earl of Peterborough 
was general of the marine forces in Great Britain. 

In October, 1735, he found it necessary to set sail for Lis- 
bon for recovery of Ms health ; " no body," to use Pope's ex- 
pression, " being so much wasted, no soul being more alive." 
He was cut in the bladder for a suppression of urine ; imme- 
diately after which cruel operation, he took coach, and tra- 
velled no less a journey than from Bristol to Southampton, 
" like a man," says the same poet, "determined neither to 



264 



PREFACE. 



live nor die like any other mortal." He died on his voyage 
to Lisbon, 25th October, 1735, aged seventy-seven. 

The Earl of Peterborough was twice married, and left two 
sons and a daughter by his first wife. 

To all the talents of a general and negotiator, this won- 
derful man added those belonging to a literary character. 
He associated with all the wits of Queen Anne's reign, was 
a lively poet, and his familiar letters are read to advantage 
amongst those of Gay, Arbuthnot, Swift, and Pope. He lived 
in great intimacy with the last, who boasts, that, 

He, whose lightning pierced the Iberian lines, 
Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines ; 
Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain, 
Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain. 

To Pope, Peterborough bequeathed on his deathbed his 
watch, a present from the King of Sardinia, that, as he ex- 
pressed it, his friend might have something to put him every 
day in mind of him. 

The frame, in which were lodged such comprehensive 
talents, was thin, short, spare, and well calculated to endure 
the eternal fatigue imposed by the restless tenant within. The 
famous lines of Dryden might be happily applied to the Earl 
of Peterborough: — 

A fiery soul, which, working out its way, 

Fretted the pigmy body to decay, 

And o'er informed the tenement of clay. 

His face, judging from the print in Dr. Birch's Lives, was 
thin ; his eye lively and penetrating. 

Such was Charles, Earl of Peterborough, one of those phe- 
nomena whom nature produces once in the revolution of cen- 



PREFACE. 265 

turies, to show to ordinary men what she can do in a mood 
of prodigality. 

To this short sketch of the principal character in these 
Memoirs, the publishers would willingly have added some 
particulars of the author ; but they are unable to say more 
on the subject than may be collected from the work itself, and 
the original preface. It is obvious that Captain George 
Carleton was one of those men who choose the path of mili- 
tary life, not from a wish to indulge either indolent or licen- 
tious habits, but with a feeling of duty, which should be 
deeply impressed on all to whom their country commits the 
charge of her glory, and of the lives of their fellow-subjects. 
There is a strain of grave and manly reflection through the 
work, which speaks the author accustomed to scenes of dan- 
ger, and familiar with the thoughts of death. From his 
studies in mathematics, and in fortification, he is entitled to 
credit for his military remarks, which are usually made with 
simple modesty. His style is plain and soldier-like, without 
any pretence at ornament ; though in narrating events of im- 
portance, its very simplicity gives it occasional dignity. Of 
the fate of the author after deliverance from his Spanish cap- 
tivity, we know nothing ; but can gather from some passages 
in his Memoirs, that it did not correspond with his merit.* 

* The Memoirs were first printed in I743,f with the following comprehen- 
sive title page : — " The Memoirs of Captain George Carleton, an English 
officer, who served in the two last wars against France and Spain, and was 
present in several engagements, both in the fleet and army. Containing 
an account of the conduct of the Earl of Peterborough, and other general 



t This is an error, as will be seen by the facsimile title-page prefixed to the 
present edition. The book was originally printed in 1728, but the edition of 1743 is 
the first which contains the preliminary account of the Earl of Peterborough.— 
H. G. B. 



266 PREFACE. 

While we hope that our present army possesses many such 
characters, as the reflecting, manly, and conscientious Carle- 
ton, we heartily wish them better fortune. 



officers, admirals, &c, and several remarkable transactions both by sea 
and land. In which the genius, pride, and barbarity of the Spaniards, 
during the author's being a prisoner of war among them, are set in a true 
light. Together with a description of many of their cities, towns, &c. t 
particularly Valencia, Barcelona, Molviedro, Saguntum, Alicant, Montserat, 
Denia, St. Clement de la Mancha, Madrid, Valladolid, Bilboa, St. Jean de 
Luz, Bayonne, Pont d'Esprit, Pampeluna, Saragoza, &c. Their manners 
and customs, both religious and civil ; observations on their monasteries 
and nunneries, and their manner of investing nuns. Likewise their bull- 
feasts, and other public diversions/' 



THE 

MEMOIRS 

OF AN 

English Officer, 

Who serv'd in the Dutch War in 1672. 
to the Peace of Utrecht, in 1713. 

Containing 

Several Kemarkable Transactions both by 
Sea and Land, and in divers Countries, but 
chiefly those wherein the Author was per- 
sonally concern' d. 

Together with 

A Description of many Cities, Towns, and Coun- 
tries, in which he resided ; their Manners and 
Customs, as well Religious as Civil, interspers'd 
with many curious Observations on their Mo- 
nasteries and Nunneries, more particularly of 
the famous one at Montserat. 

On the Bull-Feasts, and other publick Diversions ; 
as also on the Genius of the Spanish People, 
amongst whom he continued several Years a Pri- 
soner of War. No Part of which has before been 
made publick. 

ByCapt. GEORGE CABLET ON. 

LONDON, Printed for E. Symon, over against the 
Eoyal Exchange, Cornhill. M DCC XXVIII. 



TO 

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 

SPENCER LORD COMPTON, 

BARON OF WILMINGTON, 

KNIGHT OP THE BATH, AND ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOUR- 
ABLE PRIVY COUNCIL. 



It was my fortune, my Lord, in my juvenile years, Musas 
cum marte commutare ; and truly I have reason to blush, when 
I consider the small advantage I have reaped from that 
change. But lest it should be imputed to my want of merit, 
I have wrote these Memoirs, and leave the world to judge of 
my deserts. They are not set forth by any fictitious stories, 
nor embellished with rhetorical flourishes ; plain truth is cer- 
tainly most becoming the character of an old soldier. Yet 
let them be never so meritorious, if not protected by some 
noble patron, some persons may think them to be of no 
value. 

To you, therefore, my Lord, I present them ; to you, who 
have so eminently distinguished yourself, and whose wisdom 
has been so conspicuous to the late representatives of Great 
Britain, that each revolving age will speak in your praise ; 
and if you vouchsafe to be the Mecamas of these Memoirs, 
your name will give them sufficient sanction. 

An old soldier I may truly call myself, and my family 
allows me the title of a gentleman ; yet I have seen many 
favourites of fortuue, without being able to discern why they 



270 DEDICATION. 

should be so happy, and myself so unfortunate. But let not 
that discourage your Lordship from receiving these my Me- 
moirs into your patronage ; for the unhappy cannot expect 
favour, but from those who are endued with generous souls. 

Give me leave, my Lord, to congratulate this good for- 
tune, that neither Whig nor Tory (in this complaining age) 
have found fault with your conduct. Your family has pro- 
duced heroes, in defence of injured kings ; and you, when it 
was necessary, have as nobly adhered to the cause of liberty. 

My Lord, 
Your Lordship's most obedient, 

And most devoted humble Servant, 

G. Carleton. 



TO THE READER. 



The author of these Memoirs began early to distinguish 
himself in martial affairs, otherwise he could not have seen 
such variety of actions, both by sea and land. After the last 
Dutch war he went into Flanders, where he not only served 
under the command of his Highness the Prince of Orange, 
whilst he was generalissimo of the Dutch forces, but like- 
wise all the time he reigned King of Great Britain. Most of 
the considerable passages and events, which happened during 
that time, are contained in the former part of this book. 

In the year 1705, the regiment, in which he served as 
captain, was ordered to embark for the West Indies ; and 
he, having no inclination to go thither, changed with an half- 
pay captain ; and being recommended to the Earl of Peter- 
borough by the late Lord Cutts, went with him upon that 
noble expedition into Spain. 

When the forces under his Lordship's command were 
landed near Barcelona, the siege of that place was thought 
by several impracticable, not only for want of experienced 
engineers, but that the besieged were as numerous as the be- 
siegers ; yet the courage of that brave earl surmounted those 
difficulties, and the siege was resolved upon. 

Our author having obtained, by his long service, some 
knowledge of the practic part of an engineer, and seeing at 
that critical time the great want of such, readily acted as 
one, which gave him the greater opportunity of being an eye- 



272 TO THE READER. 

witness of his Lordship's actions; and consequently made 
him capable of setting them forth in these his Memoirs. 

It may not be, perhaps, improper to mention, that the 
author of these Memoirs was born at Ewelme in Oxford- 
shire, descended from an ancient and an honourable family. 
The Lord Dudley Carleton, who died secretary of state to 
King Charles I., was his great uncle ; and in the same reign 
his father was envoy at the Court of Madrid, whilst his uncle, 
Sir Dudley Carleton, was ambassador to the states of Hol- 
land; men in those days respected both for their abilities and 
loyalty. 



MEMOIRS 



CAPTAIN CARLETON, 



CHAPTER I. 

1 VOLUNTEER ON BOARD THE LONDON, AND GO OUT WITH 

THE DUKE OF YORK'S EXPEDITION TO HOLLAND JOIN 

THE FRENCH FLEET GENERAL ENGAGEMENT WITH THE 

AMSTERDAM SQUADRON SINGULAR ACCOUNT OF OUR 

PIGEONS ABOARD THE LONDON PRINCE OF CONDE 

ROUTES OUR FORCES MARCH TO QUARIGNAN AND 

VALENCIENNES THE PRINCE OF ORANGE LEAVES THE 

ARMY IN DISGUST, BUT RECEDES FROM THAT RESOLUTION 

THE SIEGE OF MAESTRICH FALSE ATTACK ON WYCK 

SIEGE OF CAMBRAY AND ST. OMARS. 

In the year one thousand six hundred and seventy two, war 
being proclaimed with Holland, it was looked upon, among 
nobility and gentry, as a blemish not to attend the Duke of 
York* aboard the fleet, who was then declared admiral. 
With many others, I, at that time about twenty years of age, 
entered myself a volunteer on board the London, commanded 
by Sir Edward Sprage, vice-admiral of the red. 

The fleet set sail from the buoy of the Nore about the 
beginning of May, in order to join the French fleet, then at 

* Afterwards James II. By the treaty betwixt England and France, 
six thousand of the British troops were to assist the French army against 
the Dutch. The two fleets of France and England joined the 2nd May. 
The English consisting of a hundred, and the French of forty sail. The 
States had seventy-two large ships and forty frigates. 

VOL. II. T 



274 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAKLETON. 

anchor in St. Helen's road, under the command of the Count 
de Estree. But in executing this design we had a very nar- 
row escape: for De Ruyter, the admiral of the Dutch fleet, 
having notice of our intentions, . waited to have intercepted 
us at the mouth of the river, but by the assistance of a great 
fog, we passed Dover before he was aware of it ; and thus he 
miscarried, with the poor advantage of taking only one small 
tender. 

A day or two after the joining of the English and French, 
we sailed directly towards the Dutch coast, where we soon 
got sight of their fleet ; a sand called the Galloper lying be- 
tween. The Dutch seemed willing there to expect an attack 
from us : but in regard the Charles man-of-war had been lost 
on those sands the war before, and that our ships drawing 
more water than those of the enemy, an engagement might 
be rendered very disadvantageous, it was resolved in a coun- 
cil of war to avoid coming to a battle for the present, and to 
sail directly for Solebay ; which was accordingly put in 
execution. 

We had not been in Solebay above four or five days, when 
De Euyter, hearing of it, made his signal for sailing, in order 
to surprise us; and he had certainly had his aim, had there 
been any breeze of wind to favour him. But though they 
made use of all their sails, there was so little air stirring, that 
we could see their fleet making towards us, long before they 
came up ; notwithstanding which, our admirals found diffi- 
culty enough to form their ships into a line of battle, so as to 
be ready to receive the enemy. 

It was about four in the morning of the 28th of May, 
being Tuesday in Whitsun week, when we first made the 
discovery ; and about eight the same morning, the blue squa- 
dron, under the command of the Earl of Sandwich, began to 
engage with Admiral Van G-hent, who commanded the 
Amsterdam squadron ; and about nine the whole fleets were 
under a general engagement. The fight lasted till ten at 
night, and with equal fury on all sides, the French excepted, 
who appeared stationed there rather as spectators than par- 
ties ; and as unwilling to be too much upon the offensive, for 
fear of offending themselves. 

During the fight the English admiral had two ships dis- 
abled under him ; and was obliged about four in the afternoon 
to remove himself a third time into the London, where he re- 



LOSS OF THE ROYAL JAMES. 275 

mained all the rest of tlie fight, and till next morning. Never- 
theless, on his entrance upon the London, which was the ship 
I was in, and on our hoisting the standard, De Ruyter and his 
squadron seemed to double their fire upon her, as if they re- 
solved to blow her out of the water. Notwithstanding all 
which, the Duke of York remained all the time upon quarter- 
deck, and as the bullets plentifully whizzed around him, would 
often rub his hands, and cry, Sprage, Sprage, they follow us 
still. I am very sensible latter times have not been over 
favourable in their sentiments of that unfortunate prince's 
valour, yet I cannot omit the doing a piece of justice to his 
memory, in relating a matter of fact, of which my own eyes 
were witnesses, and saying, that if intrepidity and undaunted- 
ness may be reckoned any parts of courage, no man in the 
fleet better deserved the title of courageous, or behaved 
himself with more gallantry than he did. 

The English lost the Royal James, commanded by the Earl 
of Sandwich, which, about twelve (after the strenuous en- 
deavours of her sailors to disengage her from two Dutch fire- 
ships placed on her, one athwart her hawsers, the other on 
her starboard side), took fire, blew up, and perished, and with 
her a great many brave gentlemen as well as sailors, and 
amongst the rest the earl himself, concerning whom I shall 
farther add, that in my passage from Harwich to the Brill, 
a year or two after, the master of the packet-boat told me, 
that having observed a great flock of gulls hovering in one 
particular part of the sea, he ordered his boat to make up to 
it; when discovering a corpse, the sailors would have re- 
turned it to the sea, as the corpse of a Dutchman ; but keep- 
ing it in his boat, it proved to be that of the Earl of 
Sandwich. There was found about him between twenty and 
thirty guineas, some silver, and his gold watch; restoring 
which to his lady, she kept the watch, but rewarded their 
honesty with all the gold and silver. 

This was the only ship the English lost in this long engage- 
ment. For although the Katherine was taken, and her 
commander, Sir John Chichely, made prisoner, her sailors 
soon after finding the opportunity they had watched for, 
seized all the Dutch sailors who had been put in upon them, 
and brought the ship back to our own fleet, together with all 
the Dutchmen prisoners ; for which, as they deserved, they 
were well rewarded. This is the same ship which the Earl 

T 2 



276 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

of Mulgrave, afterwards Duke of Buckingham, commanded 
the next sea fight, and has caused to be painted in his house 
in St. James's Park. 

I must not omit one very remarkable occurrence which 
happened in this ship. There was a gentleman aboard her, a 
volunteer, of a very fine estate, generally known by the name 
of Hodge Vaughan : this person received, in the beginning 
of the fight, a considerable wound, which the great confusion 
during the battle would not give them leave to inquire into ; 
so he was carried out of the way, and disposed of in the hold. 
They had some hogs aboard, which the sailor, under whose 
care they were, had neglected to feed ; these hogs, hungry as 
they were, found out, and fell upon the wounded person, and 
between dead and alive eat him up to his very skull, which, 
after the fight was over, and the ship retaken, as before, was 
all that could be found of him. 

Another thing, less to be accounted for, happened to a 
gentleman volunteer who was aboard the same ship with my- 
self. He was of known personal courage, in the vulgar 
notion of it, his sword never having failed him in many pri- 
vate duels. But notwithstanding all his land-mettle, it was 
observed of him at sea, that whenever the bullets whizzed 
over his head, or any way incommoded his ears, he immedi- 
ately quitted the deck, and ran down into the hold. At first 
he was gently reproached ; but after many repetitions, he was 
laughed at, and began to be despised ; sensible of which, as 
a testimonial of his valour, he made it his request to be tied 
to the mainmast. But had it been granted him, I cannot see 
any title he could have pleaded from hence to true magna- 
nimity ; since to be tied from running away can import nothing 
less than that he would have still continued these signs of 
cowardice if he had not been prevented. There is a bravery 
of mind which I fancy few of those gentlemen duellists are 
possessed of. True courage cannot proceed from what Sir 
Walter Raleigh finely calls the art or philosophy of quarrel. 
No ! It must be the issue of principle, and can have no other 
basis than a steady tenet of religion. This will appear more 
plain, if those artists in murder vvill give themselves leave 
coolly to consider, and answer me this question, — why he 
that had ran so many risks at his sword's point, should be so 
shamefully intimidated at the whiz of a cannon-ball ? 



SINGULAR ACCOUNT OP PIGEONS. 277 



The names of those English gentlemen who lost their lives, as 1 
remember, in this engagement. 

Commissioner Cox, captain of the Royal Prince, under the 
command of the admiral; and Mr. Travanian, gentleman to 
the Duke of York ; Mr. Digby, captain of the Henry, second 
son to the Earl of Bristol ; Sir Fletchvile Hollis, captain of 
the Cambridge, who lost one of his arms in the war before, 
and his life in this ; Captain Saddleton, of the Dartmouth ; 
the Lord Maidstone, son to the Earl of Winchelsea, a volun- 
teer on board the Charles, commanded by Sir John Harman, 
vice-admiral of the Red. 

Sir Philip Carteret, Mr. Herbert, Mr. Cotterel, Mr. Poyton, 
Mr. Gose, with several other gentlemen unknown to me, lost 
their lives with the Earl of Sandwich, on board the Royal 
James; Mr. Vaughan, on board the Katherine, commanded 
by Sir John Chichely. 

In this engagement, Sir George Rook was youngest lieu- 
tenant to Sir Edward Sprage ; Mr. Russel, afterwards Earl 
of Orford, was captain of a small fifth rate, called the Phoe- 
nix ; Mr. Herbert, afterwards Earl of Torrington, was captain 
of a small fourth rate, called the Monck; Sir Harry Dutton 
Colt, who was on board the Victory, commanded by the Earl 
of Ossory, is the only man now living that I can remember 
was in this engagement. 

But to proceed, the Dutch had one man-of-war sunk, 
though so near the shore, that I saw some part ot her main- 
mast remain above water ; with their Admiral Van Ghent, 
who was slain in the close engagement with the Earl of 
Sandwich. This engagement lasted fourteen hours, and was 
looked upon the greatest that ever was fought between the 
English and the Hollander. 

I cannot here omit one thing, which to some may seem 
trifling ; though I am apt to think our naturalists may have 
a different opinion of it, and find it afford their fancies no un- 
diverting employment in more curious, and less perilous 
reflections. We had on board the London, where, as I have 
said, I was a volunteer, a great number of pigeons, of which 
our commander was very fond. These, on the first firing of 
our cannon, dispersed, and flew away, and were seen nowhere 



278 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAltLETON. 

near us during the fight. The next day it blew a brisk gale, 
and drove our fleet some leagues to the southward of the 
place where they forsook our ship, yet the day after they all 
returned safe aboard; not in one flock, but in small parties 
of four or five at a time. Some persons at that time aboard 
the ship admiring at the manner of their return, and speaking 
of it with some surprise, Sir Edward Sprage told them that 
he brought those pigeons with him from the Straits ; and that 
when, pursuant to his order, he left the Revenge man-of-war 
to go aboard the London, all those pigeons, of their own 
accord, and without the trouble or care of carrying, left the 
Revenge likewise, and removed with the sailors on board the 
London, where I saw them : all which, many of the sailors 
afterwards confirmed to me. What sort of instinct this could 
proceed from, I leave to the curious. 

Soon after this sea engagement I left the fleet. And the 
parliament, the winter following, manifesting their resent- 
ments against two of the plenipotentiaries, viz., Buckingham 
and Arlington, who had been sent over into Holland ; and 
expressing, withal, their great umbrage taken at the prodigious 
progress of the French arms in the United Provinces ; and 
warmly remonstrating the inevitable danger attending 
England in their ruin ; King Charles from all this, and for 
want of the expected supplies, found himself under a neces- 
sity of clapping up a speedy peace with Holland. 

This peace leaving those youthful spirits that had by the 
late naval war been raised into a generous ferment, under a 
perfect inactivity at home ; they found themselves, to avoid 
a sort of life that was their aversion, obliged to look out for 
one more active, and more suitable to their vigorous tempers 
abroad. 

I must acknowledge myself one of that number ; and 
therefore in the year 1674 I resolved to go into Flanders, in 
order to serve as volunteer in the army commanded by his 
Tiighness the Prince of Orange. I took my passage accord- 
ingly at Dover for Calais, and so went by way of Dunkirk 
for Brussels. 

Arriving at which place, I was informed that the army of 
the confederates lay encamped not far from Nivelle, and 
under the daily expectation of an engagement with the 
enemy. This news made me press forward to the service; 
for which purpose I carried along with me proper letters of 



TERRIBLE WHIRLWIND. 279 

recommendation to Sir Walter Vane, who was at that time a 
major-general. Upon farther inquiry I understood that a 
party of horse, which was to guard some waggons that were 
going to Count Montery's army, were to set out next 
morning ; so I got an Irish priest to introduce me to the 
commanding officer, which he readily obliged me in ; and 
they, as I wished them, arrived in the camp next day. 

I had scarce been there an hour, when happened one of 
the most extraordinary accidents in life. I observed in the 
east a strange dusty-coloured cloud, of a pretty large extent, 
riding (not before the wind, for it was a perfect calm) with 
such a precipitate motion, that it was got over our heads 
almost as soon as seen. When the skirts of that cloud began 
to cover our camp, there suddenly arose such a terrible 
hurricane, or whirlwind, that all the tents were carried aloft 
with great violence into the air ; and soldiers' hats flew so 
high and thick, that my fancy can resemble it to nothing 
better than those flights of rooks, which at dusk of evening, 
leaving the fields, seek their roosting places. Trees were 
torn up by the very roots ; and the roofs of all the barns, &c, 
belonging to the prince's quarters, were blown quite away. 
This lasted for about half an hour, until the cloud was wholly 
past over us, when as suddenly ensued the same pacific calm 
as before the cloud's approach. Its course was seemingly 
directly west ; and yet we were soon after informed, that the 
fine dome of the great church at Utrecht had greatly suffered 
by it the same day. And, if I am not much mistaken, Sir 
William Temple, in his Memoirs, mentions somewhat of it, 
which he felt at Lillo, on his return from the Prince of 
Orange's camp, where he had been a day or two before. 

As soon after this as I could get an opportunity, I delivered, 
at his quarters, my recommendatory letters to Sir Walter 
Vane ; who received me very kindly, telling me at the same 
time, that there were six or seven English gentlemen, who 
had entered themselves volunteers in the prince's own 
company of guards ; and added, fhat he would immediately 
recommend me to Count Solmes, their colonel. He was not 
worse than his word, and I was entered accordingly. Those 

six gentlemen were as follows; Clavers, who since 

was better known by the title of Lord Dundee ; Mr. Collier, 
now Lord Portmore ; Mr. Rooke, since major-general ; Mr. 
Hales, who lately died, and was for a long time governor of 



280 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

Chelsea Hospital ; Mr. Venner, son of that Venner remark- 
able for his being one of the fifth-monarchy men ; and Mr. 
Boyce. The four first rose to be very eminent ; but fortune 
is not to all alike favourable. 

In about a week's time after, it was resolved in a council 
of war, to march towards Binch, a small walled town, about 
four leagues from Nivelle ; the better to cut off the provisions 
from coming to the Prince of Conde' s camp that way. 

Accordingly, on the 1st of August, being Saturday, we 
began our march ; and the English volunteers had the favour 
of a baggage waggon appointed them. Count Souches, the 
imperial general, with the troops of that nation, led the van ; 
the main body was composed of Dutch, under the Prince of 
Orange, as generalissimo ; and the Spaniards, under Prince 
Vaudemont, with some detachments, made the rear-guard. 

As we were upon our march, I being among those detach- 
ments which made up the rear-guard, observed a great party 
of the enemy's horse upon an ascent, which, I then imagined, 
as it after proved, to be the Prince of Conde taking a view 
of our forces under march. There were many defiles, which 
our army must necessarily pass ; through which that prince 
politically enough permitted the imperial and Dutch forces to 
pass unmolested. But when Prince Vaudemont, with the 
Spaniards, and our detachments, thought to have done the 
like, the Prince of Conde fell on our rear-guard; and, 
after a long and sharp dispute, entirely routed them ; the 
Marquis of Assentar, a Spanish lieutenant-general, dying 
upon the spot. 

Had the Prince of Conde contented himself with this share 
of good fortune, his victory had been uncontested : but being 
pushed forward by a vehement heat of temper, which he 
was noted for, and flushed with this extraordinary success, he 
resolved to force the whole confederate army to a battle. 
In order to which, he immediately led his forces between 
our second line and our line of baggage ; by which means 
the latter were entirely cut off, and were subjected to the will 
of the enemy, who fell directly to plunder ; in which they 
were not a little assisted by the routed Spaniards themselves, 
who did not disdain at that time to share with the enemy in 
the plundering of their friends and allies. 

The English volunteers had their share of this ill fortune 
with the rest, their waggon appointed them being among 



NARROW ESCAPE WITH THE ENEMY. 281 

those intercepted by the enemy ; and I, for my part, lost 
everything but life, which yet was saved almost as unaccount- 
ably as my fellow-soldiers had lost theirs. The baggage, as 
I have said, being cut off, and at the mercy of the enemy, 
every one endeavoured to escape through or over the hedges. 
And as in all cases of like confusion, one endeavours to save 
himself upon the ruins of others ; so here, he that found 
himself stopt by another in getting over the gap of a hedge, 
pulled him back to make way for himself, and perhaps met 
with the same fortune from a third, to the destruction of all. 
I was then in the vigour of my youth, and none of the least 
active, and perceiving how it had fared with some before me, 
I clapt my left leg upon the shoulders of one who was thus 
contending with another, and with a spring threw myself 
over both their heads and the hedge at the same time. By 
this means I not only saved my life (for they were all cut to 
pieces that could not get over), but from an eminence, which 
I soon after attained, I had an opportunity of seeing and 
making my observations upon the remaining part of that 
glorious conflict. 

It was from that advantageous situation, that I presently 
discovered that the imperialists, who led the van, had now 
joined the main body. And, I confess, it was with an almost 
inexpressible pleasure, that I beheld, about three o'clock, 
with what intrepid fury they fell upon the enemy. In short, 
both armies were universally engaged, and with great 
obstinacy disputed the victory till eleven at night, at which 
time the French, being pretty well surfeited, made their 
retreat : nevertheless, to secure it by a stratagem, they left 
their lighted matches hanging in the hedges and waving 
with the air, to conceal it from the confederate army. 

About two hours after, the confederate forces followed the 
example of their enemies, and drew off. And, though neither 
army had much reason to boast, yet, as the Prince of Orange 
remained last in the field, and the French had lost what they 
before had gained, the glory of the day fell to the Prince of 
Orange; who, although but twenty-four years of age, had 
the suffrage of friend and foe, of having played the part of 
an old and experienced officer. 

There were left that day on the field of battle, by a general 
computation, not less than eighteen thousand men on both 



282 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

sides, over and above those who died of their wounds : the 
loss being pretty equal, only the French carried off most 
prisoners. Prince Waldeck was shot through the arm, which 
I was near enough to be an eye-witness of; and my much- 
lamented friend, Sir Walter Vane, was carried off dead. A 
wound in the arm was all the mark of honour that I as yet 
could boast of, though our cannon in the defiles had slain 
many near me. 

The Prince of Conde (as we were next day informed) lay 
all that night under a hedge, wrapped in his cloak ; and 
either from the mortification of being disappointed in his 
hopes of victory, or from a reflection of the disservice which 
his own natural overheat of temper had drawn upon him, 
was almost inconsolable many days after. And thus ended 
the famous battle of Seneff. 

But though common vogue has given it the name of a 
battle, in my weak opinion it might rather deserve that of a 
confused skirmish ; all things having been forcibly carried on 
without regularity, or even design enough to allow it any 
higher denomination ; for, as I have said before, notwith- 
standing I was advantageously stationed for observation, I 
found it very often impossible to distinguish one party from 
another. And this was more remarkably evident on the part 
of the Prince of Orange, whose valour and vigour having led 
him into the middle of the enemy, and being then sensible of 
his error, by a peculiar presence of mind, gave the word of 
command in French, which he spoke perfectly well. But 
the French soldiers, who took him for one of their own 
generals, making answer that their powder was all spent, it 
afforded matter of instruction to him to persist in his attack, 
at the same time that it gave him a lesson of caution, to 
withdraw himself, as soon as he could, to his own troops. 

However, the day after the Prince of Orange thought 
proper to march to Quarignan, a village within a league of 
Mons ; where he remained some days, till he could be supplied 
from Brussels with those necessaries which his army stood in 
need of. 

From thence we marched to Valenciennes, where we again 
encamped, till we could receive things proper for a siege, 
Upon the arrival whereof, the prince gave orders to decamp, 
and marched his army with a design to besiege Aeth. But 



THE PRINCE OF ORANGE LEAVES THE ARMY. 283 

having intelligence on our march that the Mareschal de 
Humiers had reinforced that garrison, we marched directly 
to Oudenard, and immediately invested it. 

This siege was carried on with such application and success, 
that the besiegers were in a few days ready for a storm ; but 
the Prince of Conde prevented them, by coming up to its 
relief. Upon which the Prince of Orange, pursuant to the 
resolution of a council of war the night before, drew off his 
forces in order to give him battle ; and to that purpose, after 
the laborious work of filling up our lines of contravallation, 
that the horse might pass more freely, we lay upon our arms 
all night. Next morning we expected the imperial general, 
Count Souches, to join us ; but instead of that, he sent back 
some very frivolous excuses, of the inconveniency of the 
ground for a battle ; and after that, instead of joining the 
prince, marched off quite another way ; the Prince of Orange, 
with the Dutch and Spanish troops, marched directly for 
Ghent ; exclaiming publicly against the chicanery of Souches, 
and openly declaring that he had been advertised of a con- 
ference between a French capuchin and that general, the 
night before. Certain it is, that that general lay under the 
displeasure of his master, the emperor, for that piece of 
management ; and the Count de Sporck was immediately 
appointed general in his place. 

The Prince of Orange was hereupon leaving the army in 
great disgust, till prevailed upon by the Count de Montery, 
for the general safety, to recede from that resolution. How- 
ever, seeing no likelihood of anything farther to be done, 
while Souches was in command, he resolved upon a post of 
more action, though more dangerous; wherefore ordering 
ten thousand men to march before, he himself soon after 
followed to the siege of Grave. 

The Grave, a strong place, and of the first moment to the 
Hollanders, had been blocked up by the Dutch forces all the 
summer; the Prince of Orange therefore, leaving the main army 
under Prince Waldeck at Ghent, followed the detachment he 
had made for the siege of that important place, resolving to 
purchase it at any rate. On his arrival before it, things began 
to find new motion ; and as they were carried on with the 
utmost application and fury, the besieged found themselves, 
in a little time, obliged to change their haughty summer note 
for one more suitable to the season. 



284 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

The prince, from his first coming, having kept those within 
hotly plied with ball, both from cannon and mortars, Monsieur 
Chamilly, the governor, after a few days, being weary of 
such warm work, desired to capitulate ; upon which hostages 
were exchanged, and articles agreed on next morning. 
Pursuant to which, the garrison marched out with drums 
beating and colours flying two days after, and were conducted 
to Charleroy. 

By the taking this place, which made the Prince of Orange 
the more earnest upon it, the French were wholly expelled 
their last year's astonishing conquests in Holland. And yet 
there was another consideration, that rendered the surrender 
of it much more considerable. For the French being sensible 
of the great strength of this place, had there deposited 
all their cannon and ammunition, taken from their other 
conquests in Holland, which they never were able to remove 
or carry off, with tolerable prospect of safety, after that 
prince's army first took the field. 

The enemy being marched out, the prince entered the town, 
and immediately ordered public thanksgivings for its happy 
reduction. Then, having appointed a governor, and left a 
sufficient garrison, he put an end to that campaign, and 
returned to the Hague, where he had not been long before 
he fell ill of the small pox. The consternation this threw 
the whole country into, is not to be expressed ; any one that 
had seen it would have thought that the French had made 
another inundation greater than the former. But when the 
danger was over, their joy and satisfaction for his recovery 
was equally beyond expression. 

The year 1675 yielded very little remarkable in our army. 
Limburgh was besieged by the French, under the command 
of the Duke of Enguien, which the Prince of Orange having 
intelligence of, immediately decamped from his fine camp at 
Bethlem, near Louvain, in order to raise the siege. But as 
we were on a full march for that purpose, and had already 
reached Ruremond, word was brought, that the place had 
surrendered the day before. Upon which advice, the prince, 
after a short halt, made his little army (for it consisted not of 
more than thirty thousand men) march back to Brabant. 
Nothing of moment, after this, occurred all that campaign. 

In the year 1676 the prince of Orange having, in concert 
with the Spaniards, resolved upon the important siege of 



SERIOUS LOSS IN MAKING A BREACH. 285 

Maestrich, the only town in the Dutch provinces then remain- 
ing in the hands of the French, it was accordingly invested 
about the middle of June, with an army of twenty thousand 
men, under the command of his highness Prince Waldeck, 
with the grand army covering the siege. It was some time 
before the heavy cannon, which we expected up the Maes, 
from Holland, arrived; which gave occasion to a piece of 
raillery of Monsieur Calvo, the governor, which was as hand- 
somely reparteed. That governor, by a messenger, intimating 
his sorrow to find we had pawned our cannon for ammunition 
bread ; answer was made, that in a few days we hoped to give 
him a taste of the loaves, which he should find would be sent 
him into the town, in extraordinary plenty. I remember 
another piece of raillery, which passed some days after between 
the Rhinegrave and the same Calvo. The former sending word, 
that he hoped within three weeks to salute that governor's mis- 
tress within the place, Calvo replied, he would give him leave 
to kiss her all over, if he kissed her anywhere in three months. 

But our long expected artillery being at last arrived, all 
this jest and merriment was soon converted into earnest. 
Our trenches were immediately opened towards the dauphin 
bastion, against which were planted many cannon, in order to 
make a breach ; myself, as a probationer, being twice put upon 
the forlorn hope to facilitate that difficult piece of service. 
Nor was it long before such a breach was effected as was 
esteemed practicable, and therefore very soon after it was 
ordered to be attacked. 

The disposition for the attack was thus ordered; two 
Serjeants with twenty grenadiers, a captain with fifty men, 
myself one of the number ; then a party carrying wool sacks, 
and after them two captains with one hundred men more ; 
the soldiers in the trenches to be ready to sustain them, as 
occasion should require. 

The signal being given, we left our trenches accordingly, 
having about one hundred yards to run, before we could reach 
the breach, which we mounted with some difficulty and loss ; 
all our batteries firing at the same instant, to keep our action 
in countenance, and favour our design. When we were in 
possession of the bastion, the enemy fired most furiously upon 
us with their small cannon through a thin brick wall, by 
which, and their hand grenadoes, we lost more men than we 
did in the attack itself. 



286 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAELETON. 

But well had it been had our ill fortune stopped there ; for 
as if disaster must needs be the concomitant of success, we 
soon lost what we had thus gotten, by a small but very odd 
accident. Not being furnished with such scoops as our enemies 
made use of in tossing their hand grenadoes some distance off, 
one of our own soldiers aiming to throw one over the wall into 
the counterscarp among the enemy, it so happened that he 
unfortunately missed his aim, and the grenade fell down again 
on our side the wall, very near the person who fired it. He, 
starting back to save himself, and some others who saw it fall 
doing the like, those who knew nothing of the matter fell into 
a sudden confusion, and imagining some greater danger than 
there really was, everybody was struck with a panic fear, and 
endeavoured to be the first who should quit the bastion, and 
secure himself by a real shame from an imaginary evil. Thus 
was a bastion, that had been gloriously gained, inadvertently 
deserted ; and that too with the loss of almost as many men 
in the retreat as had been slain in the onset ; and the enemy 
most triumphantly again took possession of it. 

Among the slain on our side in this action, was an ensign, 
of Sir John Fen wick's regiment ; and as an approbation of my 
services, his commission was bestowed upon me. 

A few days after it was resolved again to storm that bastion, 
as before ; out of three English, and one Scotch regiments, 
then in the camp, a detachment was selected for a fresh attack. 
Those regiments were under the command of Sir John 
Fenwick (who was afterwards beheaded), Colonel Ralph 
Widdrington, and Colonel Ashley, of the English ; and Sir 
Alexander Collier, father of the present Lord Portmore, of 
the Scotch. Out of every of these four regiments, as before, 
were detached a captain, a lieutenant, and an ensign, with 
fifty men : Captain Anthony Barnwell, of Sir John Fenwick's 
regiment, who was now my captain, commanding that 
attack. 

At break of day the attack was begun with great resolution ; 
and though vigorously maintained, was attended with the 
desired success. The bastion was again taken, and in it the 
commanding officer, who in service to himself, more than to 
us, told us that the centre of the bastion would soon be blown 
up, being to his knowledge undermined for that purpose. 
But this secret proved of no other use than to make us, by 
way of precaution, to keep as much as we could upon the 



FALSE ATTACK ON THE FORTRESS OF WYCK. 287 

rampart. In this attack Captain Barnwell lost his life ; and 
it happened my new commission was wetted (not, as too 
frequently is the custom, with a debauch, but) with a bulled 
through my hand, and the breach of my collar-bone with the 
stroke of a halberd. 

After about half an hour's possession of the bastion, the 
mine under it, of wh'tch the French officer gave us warning, 
was sprung ; the enemy at the same time making a furious 
sally upon us. The mine did a little, though the less execu- 
tion, for being discovered ; but the sally no way* answered 
their end, for we beat them back, and immediately fixed our 
lodgment ; which we maintained during the time of the siege. 
But to our double surprise, a few days after they fired 
another mine under, or aside, the former, in which they had 
placed a quantity of grenadoes, which did much more execution 
than the other : notwithstanding all which, a battery of guns 
was presently erected upon that bastion, which very consider 
ably annoyed the enemy. 

The breach for a general storm was now rendered almost 
practicable; yet before that could be advisably attempted, 
there was a strong hornwork to be taken. Upon this exploit 
the Dutch troops only were to signalise themselves ; and they 
answered the confidence reposed in them ; for though they 
were twice repulsed, at the third onset they were more suc- 
cessful, and took possession ; which they likewise kept to the 
raising of the siege. 

There was a stratagem laid at this time, which in its own 
merit one would have thought should not have failed of a 
good effect ; but to show the vanity of the highest human 
wisdom, it miscarried. On the other side of the Maes, oppo- 
site to Maestrich, lies the strong fortress of Wyck, to which 
it is joined by a stone bridge of six fair arches. The design 
was, by a false attack on that regular fortification, to draw the 
strength of the garrison to its defence, which was but very 
natural to imagine would be the consequence. Ready to 
attend that well-concerted false attack, a large flat- bottomed 
boat, properly furnished with barrels of gunpowder, and other 
necessaries, was to fall down under one of the middle arches, 
and when fixed there, by firing the powder, to have blown up 
the bridge, and by that means to have prevented the return of 
the garrison to oppose a real attack at that instant of time 
to be made upon the town of Maestrich by the whole army. 



388 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

The false attack on Wyck was accordingly made, which, as 
proposed, drew the main of the garrison of Maestrich to its 
defence, and the boat so furnished fell down the river as pro- 
jected, but unfortunately, before it could reach the arch, from 
the darkness of the night, running upon a shoal, it could not 
be got off*; for which reason the men in the boat were glad 
to make a hasty escape for fear of being discovered ; as the 
boat was, next morning, and the whole design laid open. 

This stratagem thus miscarrying, all things were immedi- 
ately got ready for a general storm, at the main breach oi the 
town; and the rather, because the Prince of Orange had 
received incontestable intelligence, that Duke Schomberg, at 
the head of the French army, was in full march to relieve the 
place. But before everything could be rightly got ready for 
the intended storm (though some there were who pretended 
to say, that a dispute raised by the Spaniards with the Dutch, 
about the propriety of the town, when taken, was the cause 
of that delay), we heard at some distance several guns fired 
as signals of relief ; upon which we precipitately, and, as most 
imagined, shamefully drew off from before the place, and 
joined the grand army under prince Waldeck. But it was 
matter of yet greater surprise to most on the spot, that when 
the armies were so joined, we did not stay to offer the enemy 
battle. The well-known courage of the prince, then general- 
issimo, was so far from solving this riddle, that it rather 
puzzled all who thought of it ; however, the prevailing opinion 
was, that it was occasioned by some great misunderstanding 
between the Spaniards and the Dutch. And experience will 
evince, that this was not the only disappointment of that 
nature, occasioned by imperfect understandings. 

Besides the number of common soldiers slain in this attack, 
which was not inconsiderable, we lost here the brave Rhine- 
grave, a person much lamented on account of his many other 
excellent qualifications, as well as that of a general. Colonel 
Ralph Widdrington, and Colonel Doleman (who had not en- 
joyed Widdrington's commission above a fortnight), Captain 
Douglas, Captain Barnwell, and Captain Lee, were of the slain 
among the English ; who, indeed, had borne the whole brunt 
of the attack upon the dauphin's bastion. 

I remember the Prince of Orange, during the siege, re- 
ceived a shot through his arm ; which giving an immediate 
alarm to the troops under his command, he took his hat off 



SIEGE OF CAMBRAY AND ST. OMERS. 289 

his head with the wounded arm, and smiling, waved it, to 
show them there was no danger. Thus, after the most gallant 
defence against the most courageous onsets, ended the siege 
of Maestrich ; and with it all that was material that campaign. 

Early in the spring, in the year 1677, the French army, 
under the Duke of Orleans, besieged at once both Cambray 
and St. Omers. This last the Prince of Orange seemed very 
intent and resolute to relieve. In order to which, well know- 
ing by sad experience, it would be to little purpose to wait 
the majestic motions of the Spaniards, that prince got together 
what forces he could, all in Dutch pay, and marching forward 
with all speed, resolved, even at the hazard of a battle, to 
attempt the raising the siege. Upon his appearing the Duke 
of Orleans, to whose particular conduct the care of that siege 
was committed, drew off from before the place, leaving scarce 
enough of his men to defend the trenches. The prince was 
under the necessity of marching his forces over a morass ; and 
the duke well knowing it, took care to attack him near Mont 
Cassel, before half his little army were got over. The dispute 
was very sharp, but the prince being much outnumbered, and 
his troops not able, by the straightness of the passage, to 
engage all at once, was obliged at last to retreat, which he 
did in pretty good order. I remember the Dutch troops did 
not all alike do their duty ; and the prince seeing one of the 
officers on his fullest speed, called to him over and over to 
halt ; which the officer in too much haste to obey, the prince 
gave him a slash over the face, saying, By this mark I shall 
know you another time. Soon after this retreat of the prince, 
St. Omers was surrendered. 

Upon this retreat the prince marching back, lay for some 
time among the boors, who from the good discipline, which 
he took care to make his troops observe, did not give us their 
customary boorish reception. And yet as secure as we might 
think ourselves, I met with a little passage that confirmed in 
me the notions, which the generality, as well as I, had imbibed 
of the private barbarity of those people, whenever an oppor- 
tunity falls in their way. I was strolling at a distance from 
my quarters, all alone, when I found myself near one of their 
houses; into which, the doors being open, I ventured to 
enter. I saw nobody when I came in, though the house was, 
for that sort of people, well enough furnished? and in pretty 
decent order. I called, but nobody answering, I had the 

VOL. II. u 



290 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

curiosity to advance a little farther, when, at the mouth of 
the oven, which had not yet wholly lost its heat, I spied the 
corpse of a man so bloated, swollen and parched, as left me 
little room to doubt that the oven had been the scene of his 
destiny. I confess the sight struck me with horror ; and as 
much courage and security as I entered with, I withdrew in 
haste, and with quite different sentiments, and could not 
fancy myself out of danger till I had reached our camp. A 
wise man should not frame an accusation on conjectures; 
but, on inquiry, I was soon made sensible, that such bar- 
barous usage is too common among those people ; especially 
if they meet with a straggler, of what nation soever. 

This made me not very sorry when we decamped, and we 
soon after received orders to march and invest Charleroy ; 
before which place we stayed somewhat above a week, and 
then drew off. I remember very well, that I was not the 
only person then in the camp that was at a loss to dive into 
the reason of this investiture and decampment ; but since I 
at that time, among the politicians of the army, never heard 
a good one, I shall not venture to offer my sentiments at so 
great a distance. 

We, after this, marched towards Mons ; and, in our march, 
passed over the very grounds on which the battle of Seneff 
had been fought three years before. It was with no little 
pleasure, that I re-surveyed a place, that had once been of so 
much danger to me ; and where my memory and fancy now 
repeated back all those observations I had then made under 
some unavoidable confusion. Young as I was, both in years 
and experience, from my own reflections, and the sentiments 
of others, after the fight was over, methought I saw visibly 
before me the well-ordered disposition of the Prince of Conde ; 
the inexpressible difficulties which the Prince of Orange had 
to encounter with ; while at the same moment I could not 
omit to repay my debt to the memory of my first patron. Sir 
Walter Vane, who there losing his life, left me a solitary 
wanderer to the wide world of fortune. 

But these thoughts soon gave place to new objects, which 
every hour presented themselves in our continued march to 
Enghien, a place famous for the finest gardens in Flanders, 
near which we encamped on the very same ground which the 
French chose some years after at the battle of Steenkirk ; 
of which 1 shall speak in its proper place. Here the Prince 



END OF THE CAMPAIGN IN FLANDERS. 291 

of Orange left our army, as we afterwards found, to pass into 
England ; where he married the Princess Mary, daughter of 
the Duke of York. And after his departure, that campaign 
ended without anything farther material. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FAMOUS PEACE CONCLUDED DESPERATE BATTLE AT 

ST. DENNIS RETURN TO ENGLAND COMMISSION GIYEN 

BY KING JAMES EARTHQUAKE AT DIXMUYD SIEGE OF 

NAMUR PRINCE VAUDEMONT's GRAND RETREAT DESTRUC- 
TION OF BRUSSELS VILLEROY's GREAT ARMY. 

Now began the year 1678, famous for the peace, and no 
less remarkable for an action previous to it, which has not 
failed to employ the talents of men, variously, as they stood 
affected. Our army, under the Prince of Orange, lay 
encamped at Soignies, where it was whispered that the peace 
was concluded. Notwithstanding which, two days after, being 
Sunday the 17th day of August, the army was drawn out, as 
most others as well as myself apprehended, in order to a feux 
de joye; but in lieu of that, we found our march ordered 
towards St. Dennis, where the Duke of Luxemburg lay, as 
he imagined, safe in inaccessible intrenchments. 

About three o'clock our army arrived there, when we 
received orders to make the attack. It began with a most 
vigorous spirit, that promised no less than the success which 
ensued. The three English and three Scotch regiments, 
under the command of the ever renowned Earl of Ossory, 
together with the Prince of Orange's guards, made their 
attack at a place called the Chateau ; where the French took 
their refuge among a parcel of hop-poles ; but their resource 
was as weak as their defence, and they were soon beaten out 
with a very great slaughter. 

It was here that a French officer having his pistol directed 
at the breast of the prince, Monsieur D'Auverquerque inter- 
posed, and shot the officer dead upon the spot. 

The fight lasted from three in the afternoon till nine at 
night, when, growing dark, the Duke of Luxemburg forsook 
his intrenchments, into which we marched next morning, 

u 2 



292 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

And to see the sudden change of things ! that very spot of 
ground, where nothing but fire and fury appeared the day 
before, the next saw solaced with the proclamation of a 
peace. 

About an hour before the attack began, the Duke of 
Monmouth arrived in the army, being kindly received by the 
Prince of Orange, bravely fighting by his side all that day. 
The woods, and the unevenness of the ground, rendered the 
cavalry almost useless ; yet I saw a standard among some 
others, which was taken from the enemy, being richly 
embroidered with gold and silver, bearing the sun in the 
zodiac, with these haughty words, Nihil obstabit eunte. On 
the news of this unexpected victory, the States of Holland 
sent to congratulate the prince; and to testify how much 
they valued his preservation, they presented Monsieur 
D'Auverquerque, who had so bravely rescued him, with a 
sword, whose handle was of massy gold, set with diamonds. 
I forgot to mention that this gentleman received a shot on 
his head at the battle of Seneff; and truly, in all actions, 
which were many, he nobly distinguished himself by his 
bravery. He was father of this present Earl of Grantham. 

The names of the English officers which I knew to be killed in this 
action. 

Lieutenant-colonel Archer, Captain Pemfield, 
Captain Charleton, Lieutenant Charleton, 

Captain Richardson Lieutenant Barton, 

Captain Fisher, Ensign Colvile. 

With several others, whose names I have forgot. 

Lieutenant-colonel Babington, who began the attack by 
beating the French out of the hop-garden, was taken prisoner. 
Colonel Hales, who was a long time governor of Chelsea 
College, being then a captain, received a shot on his leg, of 
which he went lame to his dying day. 

The war thus ended by the peace of Nimeguen, the regi- 
ment in which 1 served was appointed to lie in garrison at 
the Grave. We lay there near four years, our soldiers being 
mostly employed about the fortifications. It was here, and 
by that means, that I imbibed the rudiments of fortification, 
and the practical part of an engineer, which in my more 
advanced years was of no small service to me. 



monmouth's rebellion in England. 293 

Nevertheless, in the year 1684, our regiment received 
orders to march to Haren, near Brussels ; where, with othei 
forces, we encamped, till we heard that Luxemburg, invaded 
by the French, in a time of the profoundest peace, had sur- 
rendered to them. Then we decamped, and inarched to 
Mechlin ; where we lay in the field till near November. 
Not that there was any war proclaimed, but as not knowing 
whether those who had committed such acts of hostility in 
time of peace, might not take it in their heads to proceed yet 
farther. In November we marched into that town, where 
Count Nivelle was governor : the Marquis de Grana, at the 
same time, governing the Netherlands in the jurisdiction ol 
Spain. 

Nothing of any moment happened after this, till the death 
of King Charles II. The summer after which, the three 
English and three Scotch regiments received orders to pass 
over into England, upon the occasion of Monmouth's 
rebellion ; where, upon our arrival, we received orders to 
encamp on Hounslow Heath. But that rebellion being soon 
stifled, and King James having no farther need of us, those 
regiments were ordered to return again to Holland, into the 
proper service of those who paid them. 

Though I am no stiff adherer to the doctrine of predesti- 
nation, yet to the full assurance of a providence I never 
could fail to adhere. Thence came it, that my natural 
desire to serve my own native country prevailed upon me to 
quit the service of another, though its neighbour and ally. 
Events are not always to direct the judgment ; and therefore 
whether I did best in following these fondling dictates of 
nature, I shall neither question nor determine. 

However, it was not long after my arrival in England 
before I had a commission given me by King James, to be a 
lieutenant in a new-raised regiment under the command of 
Colonel Tufton, brother to the Earl of Thanet. Under this 
commission I sojourned out two peaceable campaigns on 
Hounslow Heath, where I was an eyewitness of one mock 
siege of Buda: after which our regiment was ordered to 
Berwick, where I remained till the Revolution. 
• King James having abdicated the throne, and the Prince 
of Orange accepting the administration, all commissions 
were ordered to be renewed in his name. The officers of 
our regiment, as well as others, severally took out theirs 



294 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

accordingly ; a very few excepted, of which number was our 
colonel, who refusing a compliance, his commission was 
given to Sir James Lesly. 

The Prince of Orange presently after was declared and 
proclaimed king, and his princess queen, with a conjunctive 
power. Upon which our regiment was ordered into Scotland, 
where affairs appeared under a face of disquietude. We 
had our quarters at Leith, till the time the Castle of Edin- 
burgh, then under the command of the Duke of Gordon, had 
surrendered. After which, pursuant to fresh orders, we 
marched to Inverness, a place of no great strength, and as 
little beauty ; though yet I think I may say, without the 
least danger of an hyperbole, that it is as pleasant as most 
places in that country. Here we lay two long winters, 
perpetually harassed upon parties, and hunting of somewhat 
wilder than their wildest game, namely, the Highlanders, 
who were, if not as nimble-footed, yet fully as hard to be 
found. 

But General Mackay having received orders to build a 
fort at Inverlochy, our regiment, among others, was com- 
manded to that service. The two regiments appointed on 
the same duty, with some few dragoons, were already on 
their march, which having joined, we marched together 
through Louquebar. This sure is the wildest country in the 
Highlands, if not in the world. I did not see one house in 
all our march; and their economy, if I may call it such, is 
much the same with that of the Arabs or Tartars. Huts, 
or cabins of trees and trash, are their places of habitation, 
in which they dwell till their half-horned cattle have devoured 
the grass, and then remove, staying nowhere longer than 
that convenience invites them. 

In this march, or rather, if you please, most dismal 
peregrination, we could but very rarely go two on a breast, 
and oftener, like geese in a string, one after another. So 
that our very little army had sometimes, or rather most 
commonly, an extent of many miles ; our enemy, the High- 
landers, firing down upon us from their summits all the way. 
Nor was it possible for our men, or very rarely at least, to 
return their favours with any prospect of success; for as 
they popped upon us always on a sudden, they never stayed 
long enough to allow any of our soldiers a mark, or even 
time enough to fire. And for our men to march or climb up 



TWO COMMANDERS ESCAPE NAKED. 295 

those mountains, which to them were natural champaign, 
would have been as dangerous as it seemed to us impractic- 
able. Nevertheless, under all these disheartening disadvan- 
tages, we arrived at Inverlochy, and there performed the 
task appointed, building a fort on the same spot where 
Cromwell had raised one before. And, which was not a 
little remarkable, we had with us one Hill, a colonel, who 
had been governor in Oliver's time, and who was now again 
appointed governor by General Mackay. Thus the work on 
which we were sent being effected, we marched back again 
by the way of Gillycranky, where that memorable battle 
under Dundee had been fought the year before. 

Some time after, Sir Thomas Levingston, afterwards 
Earl of Tiviot, having received intelligence that the High- 
landers intended to fall down into the lower countries in a 
considerable body, got together a party of about live hundred 
(the dragoons, called the Scotch Greys, inclusive), with 
which he resolved, if possible, to give them a meeting. We 
left Inverness the last day of April, and encamped near a 
little town called Forrest, the place where, as tradition still 
confidently avers, the witches met Macbeth, and greeted 
him with their diabolical auspices. But this story is so 
naturally displayed in a play of the immortal Shakespeare, 
that I need not descend here to any farther particulars. 

Here Sir Thomas received intelligence that the High- 
landers designed to encamp upon the Spey, near the laird of 
Grant's Castle. Whereupon we began our march about 
noon ; and the next day about the break thereof, we came to 
that river, where we soon discovered the Highlanders, by 
their fires. Sir Thomas, immediately on sight of it, issued 
his orders for our fording the river, and falling upon them as 
soon after as possible. Both were accordingly performed, 
and with so good order, secrecy, and success, that Cannon 
and Balfour, their commanders, were obliged to make their 
escape naked. 

They were about one thousand in number, of which were 
killed about three hundred; we pursued them till they got 
up Cromdale-hill, where we lost them in a fog. And 
indeed, so high is that hill, that they who perfectly knew it, 
assured me that it never is without a little dark fog hanging 
over it. And to me, at that instant of time, they seemed 



296 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

rather to be people received up into clouds, than flying from 
an enemy. 

Near this there was an old castle, called Lethendy, into 
which about fifty of them made their retreat, most of them 
gentlemen, resolving there to defend themselves to the last. 
Sir Thomas sent a messenger to them, with an offer of 
mercy, if they would surrender : but they refused the 
proffered quarter, and fired upon our men, killing two of our 
grenadiers, and wounding another. During my quarters at 
the Grave, having learnt to throw a grenado, I took three or 
four in a bag, and crept down by the side of a ditch or dyke, 
to an old thatched house near the castle, imagining, on my 
mounting the same, I might be near enough to throw them, 
so as to do execution. I found all things answer my 
expectation; and the castle wanting a cover, I threw in a 
grenado, which put the enemy immediately into confusion. 
The second had not so good success, falling short ; and the 
third burst as soon as it was well out of my hand, though 
without damage to myself. But throwing the fourth in at a 
window, it so increased the confusion which the first had 
put them into, that they immediately called out to me, upon 
their parole of safety, to come to them. 

Accordingly I went up to the door, which they had barri- 
caded, and made up with great stones ; when they told me they 
were ready to surrender upon condition of obtaining mercy. 
I returned to Sir Thomas ; and telling him what I had done, 
and the consequence of it, and the message they had desired 
me to deliver (a great many of the Highland gentlemen, not 
of this party, being with him), Sir Thomas, in a high voice, 
and broad Scotch, best to be heard and understood, ordered 
me back to tell them, He would cut them all to pieces, for 
their murder of two of his grenadiers, after his proffer of 
quarter. 

I was returning, full of these melancholy tidings, when 
Sir Thomas, advancing after me a little distance from the 
rest of the company ; Hark ye, sir, says he, I believe there 
may be among them some of our old acquaintance (for we 
had served together in the service of the States in Flanders), 
therefore tell them they shall have good quarter. I very 
willingly carried back a message so much changed to my 
mind ; and upon delivering of it, without the least hesitation, 



DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH FLEET. 297 

they threw down the barricado, opened the door, and out came 
one Brody, who, as he then told me, had had a piece of his 
nose taken off by one of my grenadoes. I carried him to Sir 
Thomas, who confirming my message, they all came out, 
and surrendered themselves prisoners. This happened on 
May-day in the morning ; for which reason we returned to 
Inverness with our prisoners, and boughs in our hats ; and 
the Highlanders never held up their heads so high after this 
defeat. 

Upon this success Sir Thomas wrote to court, giving a 
full account of the whole action. In which being pleased to 
make mention of my behaviour, with some particularities, I 
had soon after a commission ordered me for a company in 
the regiment under the commaud of Brigadier Tiffin. 

My commission being made out, signed, and sent to me, 
I repaired immediately to Portsmouth, where the regiment 
lay in garrison. A few days after I had been there, Admiral 
Russel arrived with the fleet, and anchored at St. Helen's, 
where he remained about a week. On the 18th of May the 
whole fleet set sail ; and it being my turn the same day to 
mount the main guard, I was going the rounds very early, 
when I heard great shooting at sea. I went directly to 
acquaint the governor, and told him my sentiments, that the 
two contending fleets were actually engaged ; which indeed 
proved true, for that very night a pinnace, which came from 
our fleet, brought news that Admiral Russel had engaged the 
French Admiral Turvile ; and, after a long and sharp dispute, 
was making after them to their own coasts. 

The next day, towards evening, several other expresses 
arrived, one after another, all agreeing in the defeat of the 
French fleet, and in the particulars of the burning their 
Rising Sun, together with many other of their men-of-war, 
at La Hogue. All which expresses were immediately for- 
warded to court by Mr. Gibson, our governor. 

About two months after this, our regiment, among many 
others, was, according to order, shipped off on a secret 
expedition, under the command of the Duke of Leinster, no 
man knowing to what place we were going, or on what design ; 
no, not the commander himself. However, when we were 
out at sea, the general, according to instructions, opening 
his commission, we were soon put out of our suspense, and 
informed that our orders were to attack Dunkirk. But what 



298 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

was so grand a secret to those concerned in the expedition, 
having been intrusted to a female politician on land, it was 
soon discovered to the enemy ; for which reason our orders 
were countermanded, before we reached the place of action, 
and our forces received directions to land at Ostend. 

Soon after this happened that memorable battle at Steen- 
kirk, which, as very few at that time could dive into the 
reason of, and mistaken accounts of it have passed for 
authentic, I will mention somewhat more particularly ; the 
undertaking was bold ; and, as many thought, bolder than was 
consistent with the character of the wise undertaker. Never- 
theless, the French having taken Namur, and, as the malcon- 
tents alleged in the very sight of a superior army, and nothing 
having been done by land of any moment, things were blown 
into such a dangerous fermentation, by a malicious and lying 
spirit, that King William found himself under a necessity of 
attempting something that might appease the murmurs of the 
people. He knew very well, though spoke in the senate, 
that it was not true that his forces at the siege of Namur, 
exceeded those of the enemy; no man could be more afflicted 
than he at the overflowing of the Mehaigne, from the con- 
tinual rains, which obstructed the relief he had designed for 
that important place ; yet since his maligners made an ill use 
of these false topics, to insinuate that he had no mind to put 
an end to the war, he was resolved to evince the contrary, 
by showing them that he was not afraid to venture his life 
for the better obtaining what was so much desired. 
• To that purpose, receiving intelligence that the Duke of 
Luxemberg lay strongly encamped at Steenkirk, near Enghien 
(though he was sensible he must pass through many defiles 
to engage him, and that the many thickets between the two 
armies would frequently afford him new difficulties), he re- 
solved there to attack him. Our troops at first were forced 
to hew out their passage for the horse ; and there was no one 
difficulty that his imagination had drawn that was lessened 
by experience ; and yet so prosperous were his arms at the 
beginning, that our troops had made themselves masters of 
several pieces of the enemy's cannon. But the farther he 
advanced, the ground growing straighter, so straight as not to 
admit his army's being drawn up in battalia, the troops 
behind could not give timely succour to those engaged, and 
the cannon we had taken was forcibly left behind in order to 



DARING COURAGE OF SIR ROBERT DOUGLAS. 299 

make a good retreat. The French had lost all their courage 
in the onset ; for though they had too fair an opportunity, 
they did not think fit to pursue it, or at least did it very 
languidly. However, the malcontents at home, I remember, 
grew very well pleased after this ; for so long as they had 
but a battle for their money, like true Englishmen, lost or 
won, they were contented. 

Several causes, I remember, were assigned for this mis- 
carriage, as they called it : some there were who were willing 
to lay it upon the Dutch ; and allege a saying of one of their 
generals who, receiving orders to relieve some English and 
Scotch that were overpowered, was heard to say, Damn 'em, 
since they love fighting let 'em have their bellies full. But I 
should rather impute the disappointment to the great loss of so 
many of our bravest officers at the very first onset. General 
Mackay, Colonel Lanier, the Earl of Angus, with both his 
field-officers, Sir Robert Douglas, Colonel Hodges, and many 
others falling, it was enough to put a very considerable army 
into confusion. I remember one particular action of Sir 
Robert Douglas, that I should think myself to blame should 
I omit : seeing his colours on the other side the hedge, in 
the hands of the enemy, he leaped over, slew the officer that 
had them, and then threw them over the hedge to his company; 
redeemiug his colours at the expense of his life. Thus the 
Scotch commander improved upon the Roman general ; for 
the brave Posthumius cast his standard in the middle of the 
enemy for his soldiers to retrieve, but Douglas retrieved his 
from the middle of the enemy, without any assistance, and 
cast it back to his soldiers to retain, after he had so bravely 
rescued it out of the hands of the enemy. 

From hence our regiment received orders to march to Dix- 
muyd, where we lay some time, employed in fortifying that 
place. While we were there, I had one morning steadfastly 
fixed my eyes upon some ducks, that were swimming in a 
large water before me ; when all on a sudden, in the midst of 
a perfect calm, I observed such a strange and strong agitation 
in the waters, that prodigiously surprised me. I was at the 
same moment seized with such a giddiness in my head, that, 
for a minute or two, I was scarce sensible, and had much 
ado to keep on my legs. I had never felt anything of an 
earthquake before, which, as I soon after understood from 
others, this was ; and it left, indeed, very apparent marks of 



300 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

its force in a great rent in the body of the great church, which 
remains to this day. 

Having brought the intended fortifications into some tolera- 
ble order, we received a command, out of hand, to re-embark 
for England. And, upon our landing, directions met us to 
march for Ipswich, where we had our quarters all that win- 
ter. From thence we were ordered up to London, to do duty 
in the Tower. I had not been there long before an accident 
happened, as little to be accounted for, without a divine provi- 
dence, as some would make that providence to be, that only 
can account for it. 

There was at that time, as I was assured by my Lord Lucas, 
constable of it, upwards of twenty thousand barrels of gun- 
powder in that they call the White Tower, when all at once 
the middle flooring did not only give way or shrink, but fell 
flat down upon other barrels of powder, together with many 
of the same combustible matter which had been placed upon 
it. It was a providence strangely neglected at that time, and 
hardly thought of since ; but let any considerate man consult 
the consequences if it had taken fire ; perhaps to the destruc- 
tion of the whole city, or, at least, as far as the bridge, and 
parts adjacent. Let his thoughts proceed to examine why or 
how, in that precipitate fall, not one nail, nor one piece of 
iron, in that large fabric, should afford one little spark to in- 
flame that mass of sulphurous matter it was loaded with ; 
and if he is at a loss to find a providence, I fear his friends 
will be more at a loss to find his understanding. But the 
battle of Landen happening while our regiment was here on 
duty, we were soon removed, to our satisfaction, from that 
pacific station to one more active, in Flanders. 

Notwithstanding that fatal battle the year preceding, 
namely, a.d. 1694, the confederate army under King 
William lay encamped at. Mont St. Andre, an open place, 
and much exposed ; while the French were intrenched up to 
their very teeth, at Vignamont, a little distance from us. 
This afforded matter of great reflection to the politicians of 
those times, who could hardly allow, that if the confederate 
army suffered so much, as it really did in the battle of Lan- 
den, it could consist with right conduct to tempt, or rather 
dare a new engagement. But those sage objectors had forgot 
the well-known courage of that brave prince, and were as 
little capable of fathoming his designs. The enemy, who, to 



NAMUR INVESTED BY THE EARL OF ATHLONE. 301 

their sorrow, had by experience been made better judges, 
were resolved to traverse both ; for which purpose they kept 
close within their intrenchments ; so that after all his efforts, 
King William, finding he could no way draw them to a battle, 
suddenly decamped, and marched directly to Pont Espiers, 
by long marches, with a design to pass the French lines at 
that place. 

But notwithstanding our army marched in a direct line, to 
our great surprise, we found the enemy had first taken pos- 
session of it. They gave this the name of the Long March, 
and very deservedly ; for though our army marched upon the 
string, and the enemy upon the bow, sensible of the import- 
ance of the post, and the necessity of securing it, by double 
horsing with their foot, and by leaving their weary and weak 
in their garrisons, and supplying their places with fresh men 
out of them, they gained their point in disappointing us. 
Though certain it is, that march cost them as many men and 
horses as a battle. However, their master, the French king, 
was so pleased with their indefatigable and auspicious dili- 
gence, that he wrote, with his own hand, a letter of thanks 
to the officers, for the great zeal and care they had taken to 
prevent the confederate army from entering into French 
Flanders. 

King William, thus disappointed in that noble design, gave 
immediate orders for his whole army to march through Oude- 
nard, and then encamped at Rosendale ; after some little stay 
at that camp we were removed to the Camerlins, between 
Newport and Ostend, once more to take our winter quarters 
there among the boors. 

We were now in the year 1695, when tne strong fortress 
of Namur, taken by the French in 1692, and since made by 
them much stronger, was invested by the Earl of Athlone. 
After very many vigorous attacks, with the loss of many men, 
the town was taken, the garrison retiring into the castle. 
Into which, soon after, notwithstanding all the circumspection 
of the besiegers, Mareschal Bouflers found means, with some 
dragoons, to throw himself. 

While King William was thus engaged in that glorious 
and important siege, Prince Vaudemont being posted at 
Watergaem with about fifty battalions and as many squad- 
rons, the Mareschal Villeroy laid a design to attack him with 
the whole French army The prince imagined no less, there- 



302 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

fore he prepared accordingly, giving us orders to fortify our 
camp, as well as the little time we had for it would permit. 
Those orders were pursued ; nevertheless, I must confess, it 
was beyond the reach of my little reason to account for our 
so long stay in the sight of an army so much superior to ours. 
The prince in the whole could hardly muster thirty thousand; 
and Villeroy was known to value himself upon having one 
hundred thousand effective men. However, the prince provi- 
sionally sent away all our baggage that very morning to 
G-hent, and still made show as if he resolved to defend him- 
self to the last extremity in our little intrenchments. The 
enemy on their side began to surround us ; and in their mo- 
tions for that purpose, blew up little bags of gunpowder, to 
give the readier notice how far they had accomplished it. 
Another captain, with myself, being placed on tiie right, with 
one hundred men (where I found Monsieur Montal endea- 
vouring if possible to get behind us), I could easily observe 
they had so far attained their aim of encompassing us, as to 
the very fashion of a horse's shoe. This made me fix my 
eyes so intently upon the advancing enemy, that I never 
minded what my friends were doing behind me : though I 
afterwards found that they had been filing off so very art- 
fully and privately, by that narrow opening of the horse-shoe, 
that when the enemy imagined us past a possibility of escape, 
our little army at once, and of a sudden, was ready to dis- 
appear. There was a large wood on the right of our army, 
through which lay the road to Ghent, not broader than to 
admit of more than four to march abreast. Down this the 
prince had slid his forces, except to that very small party 
which the captain and myself commanded, and which was 
designedly left to bring up the rear. Nor did we stir till 
Captain Collier, then aid-de-camp to his brother, now Earl 
of Portmore, came with the word of command for us to 
draw off. 

When Villeroy was told of our retreat, he was much sur- 
prised, as thinking it a thing utterly impossible. However, 
at last, being sensible of the truth of it, he gave orders for 
our rear to be attacked ; but we kept firing from ditch to 
ditch, and hedge to hedge, till night came upon us ; and so 
our little army got clear of its gigantic enemy with very in- 
considerable loss. However, the French failed not, in their 
customary way, to express the sense of their vexation at this 



BOMBARDMENT OF BRUSSELS. 303 

disappointment, with fire and sword in the neighbourhood 
round. Thus Prince Vaudemont acquired more glory by 
that retreat than an entire victory could have given him ; and 
it was not, I confess, the least part of satisfaction in lite, that 
myself had a share of honour under him to bring off the 
rear at that his glorious retreat at Arseel. 

However, in farther revenge of this political chicane of 
the Prince of Vaudemont, and to oblige, if possible, King 
William to raise the siege from before Namur, Villeroy 
entered into the resolution of bombarding Brussels. In order 
to which he encamped at Anderleck, and then made his 
approaches as near as was convenient to the town. There 
he caused to be planted thirty mortars, and raised a battery 
of ten guns to shoot hot bullets into the place. 

But before, they fired from either, Villeroy, in compliment 
to the Duke of Bavaria, sent a messenger to know in what 
part of the town his duchess chose to reside, that they might, 
as much as possible, avoid incommoding her, by directing 
their fire to other parts. Answer was returned, that she 
was at her usual place of residence, the palace ; and accord- 
ingly their firing from battery or mortars little incommoded 
them that way. 

Five days the bombardment continued; and with such 
fury, that the centre of that noble city was quite laid in 
rubbish. Most of the time of bombarding I was upon the 
counterscarp, where I could best see and distinguish ; and I 
have often counted in the air, at one time, more than twenty 
bombs; for they shot whole volleys out of their mortars all 
together. This, as it must needs be terrible, threw the 
inhabitants into the utmost confusion. Cart-loads of nuns, 
that for many years before had never been out of the cloister, 
were now hurried about from place to place, to find retreats 
of some security. In short, the groves, and parts remote, 
were all crowded ; and the most spacious streets had hardly 
a spectator left to view the ruins. Nothing was to be seen 
like that dexterity of our people in extinguishing the fires ; 
for where the red hot bullets fell, and raised new conflagra- 
tions, not burghers only, but the vulgar sort, stood staring, 
and, with their hands impocketed, beheld their houses 
gradually consume ; and without offering prudent or charit- 
able hand to stop the growing flames. 

But after they had almost thus destroyed that late fair city, 



304 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

Villeroy, finding he could not raise the siege of Namur by 
that vigorous attack upon Brussels, decamped at last from 
before it, and put his army on the march towards Namur, to 
try if he could have better success by exposing to show his 
pageant of one hundred thousand men. Prince Vaudemont 
had timely intelligence of the duke's resolution and motion ; 
and resolved, if possible, to get there before him. Nor was 
the attempt fruitless ; he fortunately succeeded, though with 
much fatigue, and no little difficulty, after he had put a trick 
upon the spies of the enemy by pretending to encamp, and, 
so soon as they were gone, ordering a full march. 

The castle of Namur had been all this time under the fire 
of the besiegers' cannon ; and soon after our little army under 
the prince was arrived, a breach, that was imagined practic- 
able, being made in the Terra Nova (which, as the name 
imports, was a new work, raised by the French, and added to 
the fortifications, since it fell into their hands in 1692, and 
which very much increased the strength of the whole), a 
breach, as I have said, being made in this Terra Nova, a 
storm, in a council of war, was resolved upon. Four entire 
regiments, in conjunction with some draughts made out of 
several others, were ordered for that work, myself command- 
ing that part of them which had been drawn out of Colonel 
Tiffin's. We were all to rendezvous at the abbey of Salsines, 
under the command of the Lord Cutts ; the signal when the 
attack was to be made, being agreed to be the blowing up of 
a bag of gunpowder upon the bridge of boats that lay over the 
Sambre. 

So soon as the signal was made, we marched up to the 
breach with a decent intrepidity ; receiving, all the way we 
advanced, the full fire of the Cohorn fort. But as soon as 
we came near enough to mount, we found it vastly steep and 
rugged. Notwithstanding all which, several did get up, and 
entered the breach ; but not being supported as they ought 
to have been, they were all made prisoners ; which, together 
with a wound which my Lord Cutts received, after we had 
done all that was possible for us, necessitated us to retire 
with the loss of many of our men. 

Villeroy all this while lay in sight, with his army of one 
hundred thousand men, without making the least offer to 
incommode the besiegers ; or even without doing anything 
more than make his appearance in favour of the besieged, 



PLOT TO ASSASSINATE KING WILLIAM. 305 

and reconnoitering our encampment ; and, at last, seeing, or 
imagining that he saw, the attempt would be to little purpose, 
with all the good manners in the world, in the night, he 
withdrew that terrible meteor, and relieved our poor horses 
from feeding on leaves, the only inconvenience he had put 
us to. 

This retreat leaving the garrison without all hope of relief, 
they in the castle immediately capitulated. But after one of 
the gates had been, according to articles, delivered up, and 
Count Guiscard was marching out at the head of the garrison, 
and Bouflers at the head of the dragoons, the latter was- 
by order of King William, arrested, in reprize of the garrisoi 
of Dixmuyd (who, contrary to the cartel, had been detained 
prisoners), and remained under arrest till they were set 
free. 



CHAPTER III. 

PLOT TO ASSASSINATE KINO WILLIAM ACCOUNT OF THE CON- 
SPIRACY DISSIPATION OF THE GUARD AT SHOERBECK 

LEFT IN A GARRISON WITHOUT AMMUNITION NARROW 

ESCAPE FROM A HIRED INCENDIARY THE ADVANTAGE OF 

A JEW AS PROVEDITOR TO THE ARMY AND TROOPS — SHORT 
DESCRIPTION OF VALENCIA AND BARCELONA. 

At the very beginning of the year 1696 was discovered a 
plot, fit only to have had its origin from hell or Rome : a plot 
which would have put Hottentots and barbarians out of 
countenance. This was called the Assassination Plot, from 
the design of it, which was, to have assassinated King 
William a little before the time of his usual leaving England 
to head the army of the confederates in Flanders. And as 
nothing could give a nobler idea of the great character of 
that prince than such a nefarious combination against him ; 
so, with all considerate men, nothing could more depreciate 
the cause of his inconsiderate enemies. If I remember what 
I have read, the sons of ancient Rome, though heathens, 
behaved themselves against an enemy in a quite different 
manner. Their historians afford us more instances than a 
few, of their generous intimations to kings and generals, 

VOL. II. X 



306 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

under actual hostilities, of barbarous designs upon their lives. 
I proceed to this of our own countrymen. 

Soon after the discovery had been made, by persons 
actually engaged in that inhuman design, the regiment in 
which I served, with some others then in Flanders, received 
orders, with all expedition, to embark for England ; though, 
on our arrival at Gravesend, fresh orders met us to remain 
on board the transports till we had farther directions. 

On my going to London, a few days after, I was told that 
two regiments only were now designed to come ashore ; and 
that the rest would be remanded to Flanders, the danger 
apprehended being pretty well over. I was at Whitehall 
when I received this notice ; where, meeting my Lord Cutts 
(who had, ever since the storming of the Terra Nova at 
Namur, allowed me a share in his favour), he expressed 
himself in the most obliging manner ; and, at parting, desired 
he might not fail of seeing me next morning at his house, for 
he had somewhat of an extraordinary nature to communicate 
tome. 

At the time appointed, I waited on his lordship, where I 
met Mr. Steel (now Sir Richard, and at that time his 
secretary), who immediately introduced me. I found in 
company with him three gentlemen ; and after common saluta- 
tions, his lordship delivered into my hands an order from the 
king in council to go along with Captain Porter, Mr. de la 
Rue, and Mr. George Harris (who proved to be those three 
with him), to search all the transports at Gravesend, in order 
to prevent any of the conspirators getting out of England 
that way. After answering that I was ready to pay 
obedience, and receiving, in private, the farther necessary 
instructions, we took our leave, and oars soon after for 
Gravesend. It was in our passage down, that I understood 
that they had all been of the conspiracy, but now reluctant, 
were become witnesses. 

When we came to Gravesend, I produced my authority to 
the commanding officer, who very readily paid obedience, and 
gave assistance ; but after our most dilligent search, finding 
nothing of what we looked for, we returned that very night 
to London. 

Next day a proclamation was to come out for the appre- 
hending three or four troopers, who were sent over by King 
James, with 1,000/. reward for each ; Mr. George Harris, 



THE CONSPIRATORS DISCOVERED. 307 

who was the fourth, being the only evidence against the other 
three. No sooner were we re turned from Gravesend, but Harris 
had intelligence brought him, that Cassells, one of the three, 
was at Mr. Allen's in the Savoy, under the name of Green. 
Upon which we went directly to the place ; and inquiring 
for Mr. Green, we were told he lodged there, and was in his 
room. 

I was obliged by my order to go along with them, and 
assist them ; and very well was it that I was so : for in 
consideration of the reward in the proclamation, which, as 
I have said, was to come out the next day, Harris and the 
rest were for deferring his seizure, till the coming out of that 
proclamation ; but making answer, that in case of his escape 
that night, I must be responsible to my superiors, who, under 
the most favourable aspect, would construe it a neglect of 
duty, they were forced to comply ; and so he was taken up, 
and his name that night struck out of the proclamation. It 
is very true, by this faithful discharge of my trust, I did save 
the government 1,000Z. ; but it is equally so, that I never 
had of my governors one farthing considerasion for what 
others termed an over-officious pieee of service ; though in 
justice it must be owned a piece of exact and disinterested 
duty. 

Some few days after, attending by direction at the secretary's 
office, with Mr. Harris, there came in a Dutchman, spluttering 
and making a great noise, that he was sure he could dis- 
cover one of the conspirators ; but the mien and the behaviour 
of the man, would not give anybody leave to give him any 
credit or regard. However, the man persisting in his asser- 
tions, I spoke to Mr. Harris to take him aside, and ask him 
what sort of a person he was : Harris did so ; and the 
Dutchman describing him, says Harris, returning to me, I'll 
be hanged if it be not Blackburn. Upon which we had him 
questioned somewhat more narrowly ; when having no room 
to doubt, and understanding where he was, Colonel Rivet of 
the guards was sent for, and ordered to go along with us to 
seize him. We went accordingly ; .and it proving to be 
Blackburn, the Dutchman had 500Z., and the colonel and 
others the remainder. Cassells and Blackburn, if still alive, 
are in Newgate, confined by act of Parliament, one only 
witness, which was Harris, being producible against them. 

When Blackburn was seized, I found in the chamber with 

x 2 



308 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

him, one Davison, a watchmaker, living in Holborn. 1 
carried him along with me to the secretary of state ; but 
nothing on his examination appearing against him, he was 
immediately discharged. He offered afterwards to present 
me with a fine watch of his own making, which I refused ; 
and he long after owned the obligation. 

So soon as the depth of this plot was fathomed, and the 
intended evil provided against, as well as prevented, King 
William went over into Flanders, and our regiment thereupon 
received orders for their immediate return. Nothing of any 
moment occurred till our arrival at our old quarters, the 
Camerlins, where we lay dispersed amongst the country boors 
or farmers, as heretofore. However, for our better security 
in those quarters, and to preserve us from the excursions of 
the neighbouring garrison of Furnes, we were obliged to keep 
an outguard at a little place called Shoerbeck. This guard 
was every forty-eight hours changed and remounted with a 
captain, a lieutenant, an ensign, and threescore men. 

When it came to my turn to relieve that guard (and for 
that purpose I was arrived at my post), it appeared to me 
with the face of a place of debauch, rather than business ; 
there being too visible tokens that the hard duty of both 
officers and soldiers had been that of hard drinking, the foulest 
error that a soldier can commit, especially when on his 
guard. 

To confirm my apprehensions, a little after I had taken 
possession of my guard, the man of the house related to me 
such passages, and so many of them, that satisfied me that if 
ten sober men had made the attack, they might have fairly 
knocked all my predecessors of the last guard on the head 
without much difficulty. However, his account administered 
matter of caution to me, and put me upon taking a narrower 
view of our situation. In consequence whereof, at night, I 
placed a sentinel a quarter of a mile in the rear, and such 
other sentinels as I thought necessary and convenient in other 
places ; with orders, that upon sight of an enemy the sentinel 
near should fire ; and that upon hearing that, all the other 
sentinels as well as he, should hasten in to strengthen our 
main guard. 

What my jealousy, on my landlord's relation, had suggested, 
happened accordingly. For about one in the morning I was 
alarmed with the cry of one of my sentinels, Turn out, for 



A PRESENT FROM OFFICERS OF THE GARRISON. 309 

God's sake ; which he repeated with vehemence three or four 
times over. I took the alarm, got up suddenly, and with no 
little difficulty got my men into the ranks, when the person 
who made the outcry came running in, almost spent, and out 
of breath. It was the sentinel that I had luckily placed about 
a quarter of a mile off who gave the alarm, and his musket 
flashing in the pan without going off, he endeavoured to 
supply with his voice the defect of his piece. I had just got 
my men into their ranks, in order to receive the enemy, when, 
by the moonlight, I discovered a party advancing upon 
us. My out-sentinel challenged them, and, as I had precau- 
tioned, they answered, Hispanioli ; though I knew them to 
be French. 

However, on my survey of our situation by daylight, having 
marked in my mind a proper place for drawing up my men 
in case of an attack, which was too narrow to admit of more 
than two on a breast, and which would secure between us 
and the enemy a ditch of water ; I resolved to put in practice 
what had entertained me so well in the theory. To that 
purpose I ordered my first rank to keep their post, stand still 
and face the enemy, while the other two ranks stooping, 
should follow me to gain the intended station ; which done, 
the first rank had orders to file off and fall behind. All was 
performed in excellent order ; and I confess it was with no 
little pleasure that I beheld the enemy, for the best part of an 
hour, in consultation whether they should attack us or no. 
The result, nevertheless, of that consultation ended in this ; 
that, seeing us so well upon our guard, it was most advisable 
to draw off. They soon put their resolution ' into practice, 
which I was very glad to see ; on examination a little before, 
having found that my predecessor, as in other things, had 
failed of conduct, in leaving me a garrison without ammu- 
nition. 

Next morning I was very pleasingly surprised with a 
handsome present of wine, and some other necessary refresh- 
ments. At first I made a little scruple and hesitation whether 
or no to receive them ; till the bearer assured me they were 
sent me from the officers of the next garrison, who had made 
me a visit the night before, as a candid acknowledgment of 
my conduct and good behaviour. I returned their compliment, 
that I hoped I should never receive men of honour otherwise 
than like a man of honour; which mightily pleased them. 



310 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

Every of which particulars the Ghent Gazetteer the week 
after published. 

We had little to do except marching and counter-marching 
all the campaign after ; till it was resolved in a council of 
war, for the better preserving of Brussels from such insults 
as it had before sustained from the French, during the siege 
of Namur, to fortify Anderlech ; upon which our regiment, 
as well as others, were commanded from our more pacific 
posts to attend that work. Our whole army was under 
movement to cover that resolution ; and the train fell to my 
care and command in the march. There accompanied the 
train a fellow, seemingly ordinary, yet very officious and 
courteous, being ready to do anything for any person, from 
the officer to the common soldier. He travelled along and 
moved with the train, sometimes on foot, and sometimes 
getting a ride in some one or other of the waggons ; but ever 
full of his chit-chat and stories of humour. By these in- 
sinuating ways he had screwed himself into the general good 
opinion ; >but the Waggoners especially grew particularly fond 
of him.. At the end of our march all our powder-waggons 
"were placed breast-a-breast, and so close, that one mis- 
carrying would leave little doubt of the fate of all the rest. 
This, in the camp, we commonly call the Park ; and here it 
was that our ne*w guest, like another Phaeton, though under 
pretence oi* weariness, not ambition, got leave of the very last 
carter to the train to take a nap in his- waggon. One who 
had entertained a jealousy of him, and - had watched him, 
gave information against him ; upon' which .he was seized 
and brought to me as captain of the guard. ' I caused him 
to be searched; and, upon search, finding match', touchwood, 
and other dangerous materials upon him, .1 sent him and 
them away to the provoe. Upon the whole, a council of 
war was called, at which, upon a strict examination, he 
confessed himself a hired incendiary ; and as such received 
his sentence to be burnt in the face of the army. The 
execution was a day or two after, when, on the very spot, 
lie farther acknowledged, that on the sight or noise of the 
blow, it had been concerted that the French army should 
fall upon the confederates under those lamentable circum- 
stances. 

The peace of Biswick soon after taking place, put an end 
to all incendiarisms of either sort. So that nothing of a 



THE CHANCE OF FORTUNE VERY OBSCURE. 311 

military kind, which was riow become my province, hap- 
pened of some years after. Our regiment was first ordered 
^nto England, and presently .after into Ireland. But as 
these Memoirs are not designed for the low amusement of 
a tea-table, but rather of the cabinet, a series of inglorious 
inactivity can furnish but very little towards them. 

Yet as little as I admired a life of inactivity, there are 
some sorts of activity to which a c wise t man might almost 
give supineness the preference. Such is that of barely 
encountering elements, and waging war with nature; and 
such, in my opinion, would have been the spending my 
commission, and very probably my life with it, in the West 
Indies. For though the climate, as some would urge, may 
afford a chance for a very speedy advance in honour, yet, 
upon revolving in my mind, that those rotations of the 
wheel of fortune are often so very quick, as well as un- 
certain, that I myself might as well be the first? as the last; 
the whole of the debate ended in somewhat like that couplet 
of the excellent Hudibras : — 

Then he, that ran away and fled, 
Must lie in honour's trucklebed. 

However, my better planets soon disannulled those me- 
lancholy ideas, which a rumour of our being sent into the 
West Indies had crowded my head and heart with. For 
being called over into 'England upon the very affairs of the 
regiment, I arrived there just after the orders for their 
transportation went over/j-xby which means the choice of 
going was put out of my power, and the danger of refusing, 
-which was the case of many, was very likely avoided. 

It being judged, therefore, impossible for me to return 
Isoon enough to gain my passage, one in power proposed to 
me that I should resign to an officer then going over ; and 
with some other contingent advantages, to my great satis- 
faction I was put upon the half-pay list. This was more 
agreeable, for I knew, or at least imagined myself wise 
enough to foretell, from the over-hot debate of the house of 
commons upon the partition treaty, that it could not be long 
before the present peace would at least require patching. 

Under this sort of uncertain settlement I remained with 
the patience of a Jew, though not with Judaical absurdity, 



312 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

a faithful adherer to my expectation. Nor did the con- 
sequence fail of answering ; a war was apparent, and soon 
after proclaimed. Thus, waiting for an opportunity which I 
flattered myself would soon present, the little diversions of 
Dublin, and the moderate conversation of that people, were 
not of temptation enough to make my stay in England look 
like a burthen. 

But though the war was proclaimed, and preparations 
accordingly made for it, the expectations from all received 
a sudden damp by the as sudden death of King William. 
That prince, who had stared death in the face in many sieges 
and battles, met with his fate in the midst of his diversions, 
who seized his prize in an hour, to human thought, the least 
adapted to it. He was a hunting, his customary diversion, 
when, by an unhappy trip of his horse, he fell to the ground; 
and in the fall displaced his collar-bone. The news of it 
immediately alarmed the court and all around ; and the sad 
effects of it soon after gave all Europe the like alarm. 
France only, who had not disdained to seek it sooner by 
ungenerous means, received new hope from what gave others 
motives for despair. He flattered himself, that that long- 
lived obstacle to his ambition thus removed, his successor 
would never fall into those measures which he had wisely 
concerted for the liberties of Europe; but he, as well as 
others of his adherents, was gloriously deceived. That god- 
like queen, with a heart entirely English, prosecuted her 
royal predecessor's counsels; and, to remove all the very 
faces of jealousy, immediately on her accession, despatched 
to every court of the great confederacy persons adequate to 
the importance of the message, to give assurances thereof. 

This gave new spirit to a cause that at first seemed to 
languish in its founder, as it struck its great opposers with a 
no less mortifying terror. And well did the great successes 
of her arms answer the prayers and efforts of that royal soul 
of the confederacies, together with the wishes of all that, 
like her, had the good, as well as- the honour of their 
country at heart, in which the liberties of Europe were 
included. The first campaign gave a noble earnest of the 
future. Bon, Keyserwaert, Venlo, and Buremond, were 
found forerunners only of Donawert, Hochstet, and Blen- 
heim. Such a march of English forces to the support of the 
tottering empire, as it gloriously manifested the ancient 



EMBARK WITH EARL PETERBOROW FOR SPAIN. 313 

genius of a warlike people, so was it happily celebrated with 
a success answerable to the glory of the undertaking, which 
concluded in statues and princely donatives to an English 
subject, from the then only emperor in Europe. A small 
tribute, it is true, tor ransomed nations and captived armies, 
which justly enough inverted the exclamations of a Roman 
emperor to the French monarch, who deprecated his legions 
lost pretty near the same spot; but to a much superior 
number, and on a much less glorious occasion. 

But my good fortune not allowing me to participate in those 
glorious appendages of the English arms in Flanders, nor on 
the Rhine, I was resolved to make a push for it the first oppor- 
tunity, and waste my minutes no longer on court attendances ; 
and my Lord Cutts returning with his full share of laurels for 
his never to be forgotten services at Venlo, Ruremond, and 
Hochstet, found his active genius now to be reposed under the 
less agreeable burthen of unhazardous honour, where quiet 
must provide a tomb for one already past any danger of 
oblivion ; deep wounds and glorious actions having anticipated 
all that could be said in epitaphs or literal inscriptions. Soon 
after his arrival from Germany he was appointed general of 
all her majesty's forces in Ireland ; upon which, going to 
congratulate him, he was pleased to inquire of me several 
things relating to that country, and particularly in what part 
of Dublin I would recommend his residence ; offering at the 
same time, if I would go over with him, all the services that 
should fall in his way. 

But inactivity was a thing I had too long lamented ; there- 
fore, after I had, as decently as I could, declined the latter 
part, I told his lordship that as to a place of residence, I was 
master of a house in Dublin, large enough, and suitable to his 
great quality, which should be at his service on any terms he 
thought fit. Adding, withal, that I had a mind to see Spain, 
where my Lord Peterborow was now going ; and that if his 
lordship would favour me with a recommendation, it would 
suit my present inclinations much better than any farther 
tedious recess. His lordship was so good to close with both my 
overtures; and spoke so effectually in my favour that the Earl 
of Peterborow, then general of all the forces ordered on that 
expedition, bade me speedily prepare myself; and so, when 
all things were ready, I embarked with that noble lord for 
Spain, to pursue his well-concerted undertaking; which, in 



314 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 



the event, will demonstrate to the world that little armies, 
under the conduct of auspicious generals, may sometimes pro- 
duce prodigious effects. 

The Jews, in whatever part of the world, are a people indus- 
trious in the increasing of mammon ; and, being accustomed 
to the universal methods of gain, are always esteemed best 
qualified for any undertaking where that bears a probability 
of being a perquisite. Providing bread, and other requisites, 
for an army, was ever allowed to carry along with it a profit 
answerable ; and Spain was not the first country where that 
people had engaged in such an undertaking. Besides, on any 
likely appearance of great advantage, it is in the nature as well 
as practice of that race, strenuously to assist one another, and 
that with the utmost confidence and prodigious alacrity. One 
of that number, both competent and willing enough to carry 
on an undertaking of that kind, fortunately came at that 
juncture to solicit the earl of Peterborow to be employed as 
proveditor to the army and troops, which were, or should be, 
sent into Spain. 

It will easily be admitted that the earl, under his present 
exigencies, did not decline to listen. And a very considerable 
sum being offered by way of advance, the method common in 
like cases was pursued, and the sum proposed accepted ; by 
which means the Earl of Peterborow found himself put into the 
happy capacity of proceeding upon his first concerted project. 
The name of the Jew who signed the contract was Curtisos ; 
and he and his friends, with great punctuality, advanced the 
expected sum of 100,000Z. sterling, or very near it ; which 
was immediately ordered into the hands of the paymaster of 
the forces ; for though the earl took money of the Jews, it was 
not for his own, but public use. According to agreement, 
bills were drawn for the value from Lisbon, upon the Lord 
Godolphin, then lord-treasurer, all which were, on that 
occasion, punctually complied with. 

The Earl of Peterborow having thus fortunately found 
means to supply himself with money, and by that with some 
horse, after he had obtained leave of the Lord Galloway to 
make an exchange of two regiments of foot, received the arch- 
duke, and all those who would follow him, aboard the fleet ; 
and, at his own expense, transported him and his whole retinue 
to Barcelona : for all which prodigious charge, as I have been 
very lately informed, from very good hands, that noble earl 



SURRENDER OF DENIA. 315 

never to this day received any consideration from the govern- 
ment, or any person whatsoever. 

We sailed from Lisbon, in order to join the squadron under 
Sir Cloudsley Shovel : meeting with which at the appointed 
station oif Tangier, the men-of-war and transports thus united, 
made the best of their way for Gibraltar. There we stayed 
no longer than to take aboard two regiments out of that 
garrison, in lieu of two out of our fleet. Here we found the 
Prince of Hesse, who immediately took a resolution to follow 
the archduke in this expedition. He was a person of great 
gallantry, and having been viceroy of Catalonia, was received 
on board the fleet with the utmost satisfaction, as being a 
person capable of doing great service in a country where he 
was well known, and as well beloved. 

Speaking Latin then pretty fluently, it gave frequent 
opportunities of conversing with the two father-confessors of 
the Duke of Austria ; and upon that account I found myself 
honoured with some share in the favour of the archduke 
himself. I mention this, not to gratify any vain humour, but as 
a corroborating circumstance, that my opportunities of infor- 
mation, in matters of consequence, could not thereby be 
supposed to be lessened ; but that I might more reasonably 
be imagined to arrive at intelligence, that not very often, or 
at least not so soon, came to the knowledge of others. 

From Gibraltar we sailed to the bay of Altea, not far distant 
from the city of Valencia, in the road of which we continued 
for some days. While we were there, as I was very 
credibly informed, the Earl of Peterborow met with some fresh 
disappointment ; but what it was, neither I nor anybody else, 
as far as I could perceive, could ever dive into : neither did 
it appear by any outward tokens in that noble general, that 
it lay so much at his heart as those about him seemed to 
assure me it did. 

However, while we lay at Altea bay, two bomb-vessels and 
a small squadron were ordered against Denia, which had a 
small castle ; but rather fine than strong. And, accordingly, 
upon our offer to bring to bear with our cannon, and preparing 
to fix our bomb-vessels, in order to bombard the place, it 
surrendered ; and acknowledged the archduke as lawful King 
of Spain, and so proclaimed him. From this time, therefore, 
speaking of that prince, it shall be under that title. General 
Ramos was left commander here ; a person who afterwards 



316 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

acted a very extraordinary part in the war carried on in the 
kingdom of Valencia. 

But notwithstanding no positive resolutions had been taken 
for the operations of the campaign, before the archduke's 
departure from Lisbon, the Earl of Peterborow, ever solicitous 
of the honour of his country, had premeditated another en- 
terprise, which, had it been embraced, would, in all probability, 
have brought that war to a much more speedy conclusion ; 
and at the same time have obviated all those difficulties, which 
were but too apparent in the siege of Barcelona. He had 
justly and judiciously weighed, that there were no forces in the 
middle parts of Spain, all their troops being the extreme parts 
of the kingdom, either on the frontiers of Portugal, or in the 
city of Barcelona ; that with King Philip and the royal family 
at Madrid there were only some few horse, and those in bad 
condition, and which only served for guards ; if therefore, as he 
rightly projected within himself, by the taking of Valencia, or 
any seaport town that might have secured his landing, he had 
marched directly for Madrid ; what could have opposed him ? 
But I shall have occasion to dilate more upon this head a few 
pages hence ; and therefore shall here only say, that though 
that project of his might have brought about a speedy and 
wonderful revolution, what he was by his orders afterwards 
obliged, against his inclinations, to pursue, contributed much 
more to his great reputation, as it put him under a frequent 
necessity of overcoming difficulties, which to any other general 
would have appeared insurmountable. 

Valencia is a city towards the centre of Spain, to the sea- 
ward, seated in a rich and most populous country, just fifty 
leagues from Madrid. It abounds in horses and mules, by 
reason of the great fertility of its lands, which they can, to 
great advantage, water when and as they please. This city 
and kingdom was as much inclined to the interest of King 
Charles as Catalonia itself; for, even on our first appearance, 
great numbers of people came down to the bay of Altea, with 
not only a bare offer of their services, but loaded with all 
manner of provisions, and loud acclamations of Viva Carlos 
tercero, Viva. There were no regular troops in any of the 
places round about it, or in the city itself. The nearest were 
those few horse in Madrid, one hundred and fifty miles dis- 
tant ; nor any foot nearer than Barcelona, or the frontiers of 
Portugal. 



ORDERS TO PROCEED TO CATALONIA. 317 

On the contrary, Barcelona is one of the largest and most 
populous cities in all Spain, fortified with bastions ; one side 
thereof is secured by the sea, and the other by a strong for- 
tification called Monjouick. The place is of so large a cir- 
cumference, that thirty thousand men would scarce suffice to 
form the lines of circumvallation. It once resisted tor many 
months an army of that force ; and is almost at the greatest 
distance from England of any place belonging to that 
monarchy. 

This short description of these two places will appear highly 
necessary, if it be considered, that no person without it, 
would be able to judge of the design which the Earl of Peter- 
borow intended to pursue, when he first took the archduke 
aboard the fleet. Nevertheless, the earl now found himself 
under necessity of quitting that noble design, upon his receipt 
of orders from England, while he lay in the bay of Altea, 
to proceed directly to Catalonia ; to which the archduke, as 
well as many sea and land officers, were most inclined ; and 
the Prince of Hesse more than all the rest. 

On receiving those orders, the Earl of Peterborow seemed 
to be of opinion that, from an attempt which he thought 
under a probability of success, he was condemned to under- 
take what was next to an impossibility of effecting ; since 
nothing appeared to him so injudicious as an attempt upon 
Barcelona. A place at such a distance from receiving any 
reinforcement or relief; the only place in which the Spaniards 
had a garrison of regular forces ; and those in number rather 
exceeding the army he was to undertake the siege with, was 
enough to cool the ardour of a person of less penetration and 
zeal than what the earl had on all occasions demonstrated. 
Whereas, if the general, as he intended, had made an imme- 
diate march to Madrid, after he had secured Valencia and 
the towns adjacent, which were all ready to submit and de- 
clare for King Charles ; or, if otherwise inclined, had it not 
in their power to make any considerable resistance ; to which, 
if it be added, that he could have mules and horses imme- 
diately provided for him in what number he pleased, together 
with carriages necessary for artillery, baggage, and ammu- 
nition ; in few days he could have forced King Philip out of 
Madrid, where he had so little force to oppose him. And as 
there was nothing in his way to prevent or obstruct his 
marching thither, it is hard to conceive any other part King 



318 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

Philip could have acted in such an extremity, than to retire 
either towards Portugal or Catalonia. In either of which 
cases, he must have left all the middle part of Spain open to 
the pleasure of the enemy ; who in the mean time, would 
have had it in their power to prevent any communication of 
those bodies at such opposite extremes of the country, as 
were the frontiers of Portugal and Barcelona, where only, 
as I said before, were any regular troops. 

And, on the other side, as the forces of the Earl of Peter- 
borow were more than sufficient for an attempt where there 
was so little danger of opposition ; so if their army on the 
frontiers of Portugal should have marched back upon him 
into the country, either the Portuguese army could have 
entered into Spain without opposition, or, at worst, supposing 
the general had been forced to retire, his . retreat would 
have been easy and safe into those parts of Valencia and 
Andaluzia, which he previously had secured. Besides, Gib- 
raltar, the strongest place in Spain, if not in the whole world, 
was already in our possession, and a great fleet at hand ready 
to give assistance in all places near the sea. From all which 
it is pretty apparent, that in a little time the war on our 
side might have been supported without entering the Me- 
diterranean ; by which means all reinforcements would have 
been much nearer at hand, and the expenses of transporting 
troops and ammunition very considerably diminished. 

But none of these arguments, though every one of them is 
founded on solid reason, were of force enough against the 
prevailing opinion for an attempt upon Catalonia. Mr. Crow, 
agent for the queen in those parts, had sent into England 
most positive assurances that nothing would be wanting, if 
once our fleet made an invasion amongst the Catalans ; the 
Prince of Hesse likewise abounded in mighty offers and pro- 
digious assurances ; all which enforced our army to that 
part of Spain, and that gallant prince to those attempts in 
which he lost his life. Very much against the inclination of 
our general, who foresaw all those difficulties, which were no 
less evident afterwards to every one ; and the sense of which 
occasioned those delays, and that opposition to any effort 
upon Barcelona, which ran through so many successive 
councils of war. 

However, pursuant to his instructions from England, the 
repeated desires of the archduke, and the importunities of the 



TROOPS ENCAMP NEAR BARCELONA. 319 

Prince of Hesse, our general gave orders to sail from Altea 
towards the bay of Barcelona, the chief city of Catalonia. 
Nevertheless, when we arrived there, he was very unwilling 
to land any of the forces, till he saw some probability of that 
assistance and succour so much boasted of, and so often 
promised. But as nothing appeared but some small numbers 
of men very indifferently armed, and without either gentle- 
men or officers at the head of them, the Earl of Peterborow 
was of opinion, this could not be deemed sufficient encourage- 
ment for him to engage in an enterprise, which carried so 
poor a face of probability of success along with it. In 
answer to this it was urged, that till a descent was made, 
and the affair thoroughly engaged in, it was not to be ex- 
pected that any great numbers would appear, or that persons 
of condition would discover themselves. Upon all which it 
was resolved the troops should be landed. 

Accordingly our forces were disembarked, and immedi- 
ately encamped; notwithstanding which, the number of 
succours increased very slowly, and that after the first 
straggling manner. Nor were those that did appear any way 
to be depended on ; coming when they thought fit, and going 
away when they pleased, and not to be brought under any 
regular discipline. It was then pretended, that until they 
saw the artillery landed as well as forces, they would not 
believe any siege actually intended. This brought the general 
under a sort of necesity of complying in that also. Though 
certainly so to do must be allowed a little unreasonable, 
while the majority in all councils of war declared the design 
to be impracticable ; and the Earl of Peterborow had positive 
orders to proeeed according to such majorities. 

At last the Prince of Hesse was pleased to demand pay 
for those stragglers, as officers and soldiers, endeavouring to 
maintain that it could not be expected that men should 
venture their lives for nothing. Thus we came to Catalonia 
upon assurances of universal assistance ; but found, when we 
came there, that we were to have none unless we paid for it. 
And as we were sent thither without money to pay for any- 
thing, it had certainly been for us more tolerable to have 
been in a country where we might have taken by force what 
we could not obtain any other way. 

However, to do the Miquelets all possible justice, I must 
Jay, that notwithstanding the number of them which hovered 



BjO memoirs of captain carleton. 

about the place, never much exceeded fifteen hundred men \ 
if sometimes more, oftener less ; and though they never came 
under any command, but planted themselves where and as 
they pleased, yet did they considerable service in taking 
possession of all the country houses, and convents, that lay 
between the hills and the plain of Barcelona; by means whereof 
they rendered it impossible for the enemy to make any sorties 
or sallies at any distance from the town. 

And now began all those difficulties to bear, which long 
before, by the general, had been apprehended. The troops 
had continued under a state of inactivity for the space of three 
weeks, all which was spent in perpetual contrivances and 
disputes amongst ourselves, not with the enemy. In six 
several councils of war the siege oi Barcelona, under the cir- 
cumstances we then lay, was rejected as a madness and 
impossibility. And though the general and Brigadier Stanhope 
(afterward Earl Stanhope) consented to some effort, yet it 
was rather that some effort should be made to satisfy the 
expectation of the world, than with any hopes of success. 
However, no consent at all could be obtained from any council 
of war ; and the Dutch general, in particular, declared that 
he would not obey even the commands of the Earl of Peter- 
borow, if he should order the sacrifice of the troops under 
him in so unjustifiable a manner, without the consent of a 
council of war. 

And yet all those officers who refused their consent to the 
siege of Barcelona, offered to march into the country, and 
attempt any other place that was not provided with so strong 
and numerons a garrison ; taking it for granted that no town 
in Catalonia, Barcelona excepted, could make long resistance; 
and in case the troops in that garrison should pursue them, 
they then might have an opportunity of fighting them at less 
disadvantage in the open field, than behind the walls of a 
place of such strength. And, indeed, should they have issued 
out on any such design, a defeat of those troops would have 
put the province of Catalonia, together with the kingdoms 
of Aragon and Valencia, into the hands of King Charles 
more effectually than the taking of Barcelona itself. 

Let it be observed, en passant, that by those offers of the 
land officers in a council of war, it is easy to imagine what 
would have been the success of our troops had they marched 
Jirectl Tr from Valencia to Madrid. For if after two months 



DISSATISFACTION OF ARRANGEMENTS AT CATALONIA. 321 

alarm, it was thought reasonable, as well as practicable, to 
march into the open country rather than attempt the siege of 
Barcelona, where forces equal, if not superior in number, 
were ready to follow us at the heels ; what might not have 
been expected from an invasion by our troops when and 
where they could meet with little opposition ? But leaving 
the consideration of what might have been, I shall now 
endeavour, at least with great exactness, to set down some of 
the most remarkable events from our taking to the relief of 
Barcelona. 

The repeated refusals of the councils of war for undertaking 
the siege of so strong a place, with a garrison so numerous, 
and those refusals grounded upon such solid reasons, against 
a design so rash, reduced the general to the utmost perplexity. 
The court of King Charles was immerged in complaint ; all 
belonging to him lamenting the hard fate of that prince, to 
be brought into Catalonia only to return again, without the 
offer of any one effort in his favour. On the other hand, our 
own officers and soldiers were highly dissatisfied that they 
were reproached, because not disposed to enter upon and 
engage themselves in impossibilities. And, indeed, in the 
manner that the siege was proposed and insisted upon by the 
Prince of Hesse, in every of the several councils of war, after 
the loss of many men thrown away to no other purpose, but 
to avoid the shame, as the expression ran, of coming like fools 
and going away like cowards, it could have ended in nothing 
but a retreat at last. 

It afforded but small comfort to the earl to have foreseen 
all these difficulties, and to have it in his power to say, that 
he would never have taken the archduke on board, nor have 
proposed to him the hopes of a recovery of the Spanish 
monarchy from King Philip, if he could have imagined it 
probable, that he should not have been at liberty to pursue 
his own design, according to his own judgment. It must be 
allowed very hard for him, who had undertaken so great a 
work, and that without any orders from the government ; 
and by so doing could have had no justification but by 
success ; I say, it must be allowed to be very hard, after the 
undertaking had been approved in England, that he should 
find himself to be directed in this manner by those at a 
distance, upon ill-grounded and confident reports from Mr. 
Crow ; and compelled, as it were, though general, to follow 

VOL. II. Y 



322 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

the sentiments of strangers, who either had private views of 
ambition, or had no immediate care or concern for the troops 
employed in this expedition. 



CHAPTER IV. 

NEGLIGENCE OP THE GOVERNOR OP MONJOUICK EXTRA- 
ORDINARY RESOLUTION OF THE DUTCH GENERAL ACCOUNT 

OF THE GREAT ACTION AT MONJOUICK PANIC AMONG THE 

SOLDIERY GREAT ENTERPRISE OP THE SAILORS AT THE 

SIEGE OF BARCELONA DIFFICULTY OF MOUNTING A BAT- 
TERY THE DUCHESS OF POPOLI IN THE ENGAGEMENT 

SURRENDER OP BARCELONA REMARKABLE INSTANCE OP 

CATHOLIC ZEAL. 

Such were the present unhappy circumstances of the Earl 
of Peterborow in the camp before Barcelona : — impossibilities 
proposed ; no expedients to be accepted ; a court reproaching ; 
councils of war rejecting; and the Dutch general refusing the 
assistance of the troops under his command ; and, what sur- 
mounted all, a despair of bringing such animosities and 
differing opinions to any tolerable agreement. Yet all these 
difficulties, instead of discouraging the earl, set every faculty 
of his more afloat ; and, at last, produced a lucky thought, 
which was happily attended with events extraordinary and 
scenes of success much beyond his expectation ; such as the 
general himself was heard to confess, it had been next to folly 
to have looked for ; as certainly, in prima facie, it would 
hardly have borne proposing, to take by surprise a place 
much stronger than Barcelona itself. True it is, that his only 
hope of succeeding consisted in this : that no person could 
suppose such an enterprise could enter into the imagination 
of man ; and, without doubt, the general's chief dependence 
lay upon what he found true in the sequel ; that the governor 
and garrison of Monjouick, by reason of their own security, 
would be very negligent, and very little upon their guard. 

However, to make the experiment, he took an opportunity, 
unknown to any person but an aid-de-camp that attended 
him, and went out to view the fortifications ; and there being 
no horse in that strong fortress, and the Miquelets being 



ADVANTAGE OF POSITION AT BARCELONA. 323 

possessed of all the houses and gardens in the plain, it was 
not difficult to give himself that satisfaction, taking his way 
by the foot of the hill. The observation he made of the place 
itself, the negligence and supineness of the garrison, together 
with his own uneasy circumstances, soon brought the earl to 
a resolution of putting his first conceptions in execution ; 
satisfied as he was, from the situation of the ground between 
Monjouick and the town, that if the first was in our possession, 
the siege of the latter might be undertaken with some prospect 
of success. 

From what has been said, some may be apt to conclude, 
that the siege afterward succeeding when the attack was 
made from the side of Monjouick, it had not been impossible 
to have prevailed, if the effort had been made on the east 
side of the town, where our forces were at first encamped, 
and where only we couM have made our approaches if 
Monjouick had not been in our power. But a few words 
will convince any of common experience of the utter impossi- 
bility of success upon the east part of the town, although 
many almost miraculous accidents made us succeed, when 
we brought our batteries to bear upon that part of Barcelona 
towards the west. The ground to the east was a perfect 
level for many miles, which would* have necessitated our 
making our approaches in a regular way ; and consequently 
our men must have been exposed to the full fire of their 
whole artillery. Besides, the town is on that side much 
stronger than any other ; there is an outwork just under the 
walls of the town, flanked by the courtin and the faces of two 
bastions, which might have cost us half our troops to possess, 
before we could have raised a battery against the walls. Or 
supposing, after all, a competent breach had been made, what 
a wise piece of work must it have been to have attempted 
a storm, against double the number of regular troops 
within ? 

On the contrary, we were so favoured by the situation when 
we made the attack from the side of Monjouick, that the 
breach was made and the town taken without opening of 
trenches, or without our being at all incommoded by any 
sallies of the enemy ; as, in truth, they made not one during 
the whole siege. Our great battery, which consisted of 
upwards of fifty heavy cannon, supplied from the ships, and 
managed by the seamen, were placed upon a spot of rising 

y 2 



324 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

ground, just large enough to contain our guns, with two deep 
hollow ways on each side the field, at each end whereof we 
had raised a little redoubt, which served to preserve our men 
from the shot of the town. Those little redoubts, in which 
we had some field pieces, flanked the battery, and rendered 
it entirely secure from any surprise of the enemy. There 
were several other smaller batteries raised upon the hills 
adjacent, in places not to be approached, which, in a manner, 
rendered all the artillery of the enemy useless, by reason 
thei ' men could not ply them but with the utmost danger ; 
whereas, ours were secure, very few being killed, and those 
mostly by random shot. 

But to return to the general. Forced as he was to take 
this extraordinary resolution, he concluded the readiest way 
to surprise his enemies, was to elude his friends. He there- 
fore called a council of war ashore, of the land-officers ; and 
aboard, of the admirals and sea-officers; in both which it 
was resolved, that in case the siege of Barcelona was judged 
impracticable, and that the troops should be re-embarked by 
a day appointed, an effort should be made upon the kingdom 
of Naples. Accordingly, the day affixed being come, the 
heavy artillery, landed for the siege, was returned aboard 
the ships, and everything in appearance prepared for a 
re-embarkment. During which, the general was obliged to 
undergo all the reproaches of a dissatisfied court ; and, what 
was more uneasy to him, the murmurings of the sea-officers, 
who, not so competent judges in what related to sieges, were 
one and all inclined to a design upon Barcelona ; and the 
rather, because, as the season was so far spent, it was 
thought altogether improper to engage the fleet in any new 
undertaking. However, all things were so well disguised by 
our seeming preparations for a retreat, that the very night 
our troops were in march towards the attack of Monjouick, 
there were public entertainments and rejoicings in the town 
for the raising of the siege. 

The Prince of Hesse had taken large liberties in complain- 
ing against all the proceedings in the camp before Barcelona : 
even to insinuations, that though the earl gave his opinion 
for some effort in public, yet used he not sufficient authority 
over the general officers to incline them to comply ; throwing 
out withal some hints, that the general, from the beginning, 
had declared himself in favour of other operations, and 



PETERBOROW RESOLVES TO ENGAGE THE ENEMY. 325 

against coming to Catalonia ; the latter part whereof was 
nothing but fact. On the other side, the Earl of Peterborow 
complained, that the boasted assistance was no way made 
good ; and that, in failure thereof, his troops were to be 
sacrificed to the humours of a stranger : one who had no 
command, and whose conduct might bear a question whether 
equal to his courage. These reproaches of one another had 
bred so much ill-blood between those two great men, that for 
above a fortnight they had no correspondence, nor ever 
exchanged one word. 

The earl, however, having made his proper dispositions, 
and delivered out his orders, began his march in the evening, 
with twelve hundred foot and two hundred horse, which, of 
necessity, were to pass by the quarters of the Prince ol Hesse. 
That prince, on their appearance, was told that the general 
was come to speak with him ; and, being brought into his 
apartment, the earl acquainted him, that he had at last 
resolved upon an attempt against the enemy ; adding, that 
now, if he pleased, he might be a judge of their behaviour, 
and see whether his officers and soldiers had deserved that 
character which he had so liberally given them. The prince 
made answer, that he had always been ready to take his 
share ; but could hardly believe that troops marching that 
way could make any attempt against the enemy to satis- 
faction. However, without farther discourse, he called for 
his horse. 

By this we may see what share fortune has in the greatest 
events. In all probability the Earl of Peterborow had never 
engaged in such a dangerous affair, in cold blood and 
unprovoked ; and if such an enterprise had been resolved on 
in a regular way, it is very likely he might have given the 
command to some of the general officers : since it is not usual, 
nor hardly allowable for one that commands in chief, to go 
in person on such kind of services. But here we see the 
general and prince, notwithstanding their late indifferent 
harmony, engaged together in this most desperate under- 
taking. 

Brigadier Stanhope and Mr. Methuen, now Sir Paul, were 
the general's particular friends, and those he most consulted 
and most confided in ; yet he never imparted this resolution of 
his to either of them, for he was not willing to engage them 
in a design so dangerous, and where there was so little hope 



326 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

of success ; rather choosing to reserve them as persons most 
capable of giving advice and assistance in the confusion, great 
enough already, which yet must have been greater if any 
accident had happened to himself. And I have very good 
reason to believe, that the motive which mainly engaged the 
Earl of Peterborow in this enterprise, was to satisfy the Prince 
of Hesse and the world, that his diffidence proceeded from 
his concern for the troops committed to his charge, and not 
for his own person. On the other hand, the great characters 
of the two gentlemen just mentioned, are so well known, that 
it will easily gain credit, that the only way the general could 
take to prevent their being of the party was to conceal it 
from them, as he did from all mankind, even from the arch- 
duke himself. And certainly there never was a more 
universal surprise, than when the firing was heard next 
morning from Monjouick. 

But I now proceed to give an exact account of this great 
action ; of which no person, that I have heard of, ever yet 
took upon him to deliver to posterity the glorious particu- 
lars ; and yet the consequences and events, by what follows, 
will appear so great, and so very extraordinary, that few, 
if any, had they had it in their power, would have denied 
themselves the pleasure, or the world the satisfaction, of 
knowing it. 

The troops, which marched all night along the foot of the 
mountains, arrived two hours before day under the hill of 
Monjouick, not a quarter of a mile from the outward works : 
for this reason, it was taken for granted, whatever the de- 
sign was which the general had proposed to himself, that it 
would be put in execution before daylight; but the Earl of 
Peterborow was now pleased to inform the officers of the 
reasons why he chose to stay till the light appeared. He 
was of opinion that any success would be impossible, unless 
the enemy came into the outward ditch under the bastions of 
the second enclosure ; but that if they had time allowed 
them to come thither, there being no palisadoes, our men, by 
leaping in upon them, after receipt of their first fire, might 
drive them into the upper works; and following them 
close, with some probability, might force them, under that 
confusion, into the inward fortifications. 

Such were the general's reasons then and there given ; 
after which, having promised ample rewards to such as dis- 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE TROOPS FOR ATTACK. 327 

charged their duty well, a lieutenant, with thirty men, was 
ordered to advance towards the bastion nearest the town ; 
and a captain, with fifty men, to support him. After the 
enemy's fire, they were to leap into the ditch ; and their 
orders were to follow them close, if they retired into the 
upper works: nevertheless, not to pursue them farther, if 
they made into the inner fort; but to endeavour to cover 
themselves within the gorge of the bastion. 

A lieutenant and a captain, with the like number of men, 
and the same orders, were commanded to a demi-bastion, 
at the extremity of the fort towards the west, which was 
above musket-shot from the inward fortification. Towards 
this place the wall, which was cut into the rock, was not 
faced for about twenty yards ; and here our own men got up, 
where they found three pieces of cannon upon a platform, 
without any men to defend them. 

Those appointed to the bastion towards the town, were 
sustained by two hundred men; with which the general and 
prince went in person. The like number, under the direc- 
tions of Colonel Southwell, were to sustain the attack to- 
wards the west ; and about five hundred men were left under 
the command of a Dutch colonel, whose orders were to assist 
where, in his own judgment, he should think most proper ; 
and these were drawn up between the two parties appointed 
to begin the assault. My lot was on the side where the 
prince and earl were in person ; and where we sustained the 
only loss from the first fire of the enemy. 

Our men, though quite exposed, and though the glacis 
was all escarped upon the live rock, went on with an un- 
daunted courage ; and, immediately after the first fire of the 
enemy, all that were not killed or wounded leaped in, pel- 
met, amongst the enemy ; who, being thus boldly attacked, 
and seeing others pouring in upon them, retired in great con- 
fusion ; and, some one way, some another, ran into the 
inward works. 

There was a large port in the flank of the principal bas- 
tion, towards the north-east, and a covered way, through 
which the general and the Prince of Hesse followed the 
flying forces ; and by that means became possessed of it. 
Luckily enough, here lay a number of great stones in the 
gorge of the bastion, for the use of the fortification; with 
which we made a sort of breastwork, before the enemy re- 



328 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

covered of their amaze, or made any considerable fire upon 
us from their inward fort, which commanded the upper part 
of that bastion. 

We were afterwards informed, that the commander of the 
citadel, expecting but one attack, had called off the men from 
the most distant and western part of the fort to that side 
which was next the town ; upon which our men got into a 
demi-bastion in the most extreme part of the fortification. 
Here they got possession of three pieces of cannon, with 
hardly any opposition ; and had leisure to cast up a little 
intrenchment, and to make use of the guns they had taken to 
defend it. Under this situation, the enemy, when drove 
into the inward fort, were exposed to our fire from those 
places we were possessed of, in case they offered to make 
any sally, or other attempt against us. Thus we every 
moment became better and better prepared against any effort 
of the garrison ; and, as they could not pretend to assail us 
without evident hazard, so nothing remained for us to do till 
we could bring up our artillery and mortars. Now it was 
that the general sent for the thousand men under Brigadier 
Stanhope's command, which he had posted at a convent, half- 
way between the town and Monjouick. 

There was almost a total cessation of fire, the men on both 
sides being under cover. The general was in the upper 
part of the bastion ; the Prince of Hesse below, behind a 
little work at the point of the bastion, whence he could only 
see the heads of the enemy over the parapet of the inward 
fort. Soon after an accident happened, which cost that gal- 
lant prince his life. 

The enemy had lines of communication between Barcelona 
and Monjouick. The governor of the former, upon hearing 
the firing from the latter, immediately sent four hundred 
dragoons on horseback, under orders that two hundred dis- 
mounting should reinforce the garrison, and the other two 
hundred should return with their horses back to the town. 

When those two hundred dragoons were, accordingly, 
got into the inward fort, unseen by any of our men, the 
Spaniards, waving their hats over their heads, repeated over 
and over, Viva el Key, Viva. This the Prince of Hesse unfor- 
tunately took for a signal of their desire to surrender. Upon 
which, with too much warmth and precipitancy, calling to 
the soldiers following, They surrender, They surrender, he. 



THE TKINCE OF HESSE KILLED. 329 

advanced with three hundred men, who followed him with- 
out any orders from their general, along the curtain which 
led to the ditch of the inward fort. The enemy suffered 
them to come into the ditch, and, there surrounding them, 
took two hundred of them prisoners, at the same time making 
a discharge upon the rest who were running back the way 
they came. This firing brought the Earl of Peterborow 
down from the upper part of the bastion, to see what was 
doing below. When he had just turned the point of the 
bastion, he saw the Prince of Hesse retiring, with the men 
that had so rashly advanced. The earl had exchanged a 
very few words with him, when, from a second fire, that 
prince received a shot in the great artery of the thigh, of 
which he died immediately, falling down at the general's feet, 
who instantly gave orders to carry off the body to the next 
convent. 

Almost the same moment, an officer came to acquaint the 
Earl of Peterborow that a great body of horse and foot, at 
least three thousand, were on their march from Barcelona 
towards the fort. The distance is near a mile, all uneven 
ground; so that the enemy was either discoverable, or not to' 
be seen, just as they were marching on the hills, or in the 
valleys. However, the general directly got on horseback, to 
take a view of those forces from the rising ground without 
the fort, having left all the posts, which were already taken, 
well secured with the allotted numbers of officers and 
soldiers. 

But the event will demonstrate of what consequence the 
absence or presence of one man may prove on great occa- 
sions ; no sooner was the earl out of the fort, the care of 
which he had left under the command of the Lord Charlemont, 
a person of known merit and undoubted courage, but some- 
what too flexible in his temper, when a panic fear (though 
the earl, as I have said, was only gone to take a view of the 
enemy) seized upon the soldiery, which was a little too easily 
complied with by the Lord Charlemont, then commanding 
officer. True it is ; for I heard an officer, ready enough to 
take such advantages, urge to him, that none of all those posts 
we were become masters of were tenable ; that to offer at it 
would be no better than wilfully sacrificing human lives to 
caprice and humour; and just like a man's knocking his 
head against stone walls to try which was hardest. Having 



330 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

overheard this piece of lip-oratory, and finding, by the answer, 
that it was too likely to prevail, and that all I was like to say 
would avail nothing, I slipped away as fast as I could to 
acquaint the general with the danger impending. 

As I passed along, I took notice that the panic was upon 
the increase ; the general rumour affirming that we should be 
all cut off by the troops that were come out of Barcelona, if 
we did not immediately gain the hills, or the houses possessed 
by the Miquelets. Officers and soldiers, under this prevailing 
terror, quitted their posts, and in one united body, the Lord 
Charlemont at the head of them, marched, or rather hurried, 
out of the fort, and were come half-way down the hill before 
the Earl of Peterborow came up to them ; though, on my 
acquainting him with the shameful and surprising accident, 
he made no stay; but answering, with a good deal of 
vehemence, Good God, is it possible ? hastened back as fast 
as he could. 

I never thought myself happier than in this piece of service 
to my country. I confess I could not but value it, as having 
been therein more than a little instrumental in the glorious 
successes which succeeded; since immediately upon this 
notice from me, the earl galloped up the hill, and, lighting 
when he came to Lord Charlemont, he took his half pike out 
of his hand, and turning to the officers and soldiers, told theiv, 
if they would not face about and follow him, they should have 
the scandal and eternal infamy upon them of having deserted 
their posts, and abandoned their general. 

It was surprising to see with what alacrity and new courage 
they faced about, and followed the Earl of Peterborow. In 
a moment they had forgot their apprehensions, and, without 
doubt, had they met with any opposition, they would have 
behaved themselves with the greatest bravery. But as these 
motions were unperceived by the enemy, all the posts were 
regained, and anew possessed, in less than half an hour, 
without any loss ; though, had our forces marched half 
musket-shot farther, their retreat would have been perceived, 
and all the success attendant on this glorious attempt must 
have been entirely blasted. 

Another incident which attended this happy enterprise 
was this : the two hundred men which fell into the hands of 
the enemy, by the unhappy mistake of the Prince of Hesse, 
were carried directly into the town. The Marquis of Risburg, 



EXPLOSION OP A MAGAZINE. 331 

a lieutenant-general, who commanded the three thousand 
men which were marching from the town to the relief of the 
fort, examined the prisoners as they passed by ; and they all 
agreeing that the general and the prince of Hesse were in 
person with the troops that made the attack on Monjouick, 
the marquis gave immediate orders to retire to the town; 
taking it for granted that the main body of the troops attended 
the prince and general ; and that some design therefore was 
on foot to intercept his return, in case he should venture too 
far. Thus, the unfortunate loss of our two hundred men 
turned to our advantage, in preventing the advance of the 
enemy, which must have put the Earl of Peterborow to 
inconceivable difficulties. 

The body of one thousand, under Brigadier Stanhope being 
come up to Monjouick, and no interruption given us by the 
enemy, our affairs were put into very good order on this side ; 
while the camp on the other side was so fortified, that the 
enemy, during the siege, never made an effort against it. In 
the mean time, the communication between the two camps 
was secure enough ; although our troops were obliged to a 
tedious march along the foot of the hills, whenever the general 
thought fit to relieve those on duty on the side of the attack, 
from those regiments encamped on the west side of Barcelona. 

The next day, after the Earl of Peterborow had taken 
care to secure the first camp to the eastward of the town, he 
gave orders to the officers of the fleet to land the artillery and 
ammunition behind the fortress to the westward. Immedi- 
ately upon the landing whereof, two mortars were fixed ; 
from both which we plied the fort of Monjouick furiously 
with our bombs. But the third or fourth day, one of our 
shells, fortunately lighting on their magazine of powder, blew 
it up, and with it the governor and many principal officers 
who were at dinner with him. The blast, at the same instant, 
threw down a face of one of the smaller bastions ; which the 
vigilant Miquelets, ready enough to take all advantages, no 
sooner saw (for they were under the hill, very near the 
place), but they readily entered while the enemy were under 
the utmost confusion. If the earl, no less watchful than they, 
had not at the same moment thrown himself in with some 
regular troops, and appeased the general disorder, in all 
probability the garrison had been put to the sword. How- 
ever, the general's presence not only allayed the fury of the 



332 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

Miquelets, but kept his own troops under strictest discipline : 
so that, in a happy hour for the frighted garrison, the general 
gave officers and soldiers quarters, making them prisoners of 
war. 

How critical was that minute wherein the general met his 
retreating commander ! A very few steps farther had 
excluded us our own conquests, to the utter loss of all those 
greater glories which ensued. Nor would that have been the 
worst ; for, besides the shame attending such an ill-concerted 
retreat from our acquests on Monjouick, we must have felt 
the accumulative disgrace of infamously retiring aboard the 
ships that brought us ; but heaven reserved for our general 
amazing scenes, both of glory and mortification. 

I cannot here omit one singularity of life, which will 
demonstrate men's different way of thinking, if not somewhat 
worse ; when, many years after (to one in office, who seemed 
a little too deaf to my complaints, and by that means irritating 
my human passions), in justice to myself, as well as cause, I 
urged this piece of service, by which I not only preserved the 
place, but the honour of my country ; that minister petite, to 
mortify my expectations, and baffle my plea, with a grimace 
as odd as his logic, returned, that, in his opinion, the service 
pretended was a disservice to the nation ; since perseverance 
had cost the government more money than all our conquests 
were worth, could we have kept them. So irregular are the 
conceptions of man, when even great actions thwart the bent 
of an interested will. 

The fort of Monjouick being thus surprisingly reduced, 
furnished a strange vivacity to men's expectation's, and as 
extravagantly flattered their hopes ; for, as success never fails 
to excite weaker minds to pursue their good fortune, though 
many times to their own loss, so is it often too apt to push on 
more elevated spirits to renew the encounter for achieving 
new conquests, by hazarding too rashly all their former glory. 
Accordingly, everybody now began to make his utmost efforts; 
and looked upon himself as a drone, if he was not employed 
in doing something or other towards pushing forward the 
siege of Barcelona itself, and raising proper batteries for that 
purpose. But, after all, it must injustice be acknowledged, 
that, notwithstanding this prodigious success that attended 
this bold enterprise, the land forces, of themselves, without 
the assistance of the sailors, could never have reduced the 



OFFICERS OF THE FLEET ACT OX LAND. 333 

town. The commanders and officers of the fleet had always 
evinced themselves favourers of this project upon Barcelona. 
A new undertaking so late in the year, as I have said before, 
was their utter aversion, and what they hated to hear ofj 
Elated, therefore, with a beginning so auspicious, they gave 
a more willing assistance than could have been asked, or 
judiciously expected. The admirals forgot their element, 
and acted as general officers at land : they came every day 
from their ships, with a body of men formed into companies, 
and regularly marshalled, and commanded by captains and 
lieutenants of their own. Captain Littleton, in particular, 
one of the most advanced captains in the whole fleet, offered, 
of himself, to take care of the landing and conveyance of the 
artillery to the camp. And answerable to that, his first zeal, 
was his vigour all along ; for, finding it next to an impossi- 
bility to draw the cannon and mortars up such vast precipices 
by horses, if the country had afforded them, he caused 
harnesses to be made for two hundred men ; and, by that 
means, after a prodigious fatigue and labour, brought the 
cannon and mortars, necessary for the siege, up to the very 
batteries. 

In this manner was the siege begun ; nor was it carried 
on with any less application ; the approaches being made by 
an army of besiegers, that very little, if at all, exceeded the 
number of the besieged ; not altogether in a regular manner, 
our few forces would not admit it, but yet with regularity 
enough to secure our two little camps, and preserve a 
communication between both not to be interrupted or in- 
commoded by the enemy. We had soon erected three several 
batteries against the place, all on the west side of the town, 
viz., one of nine guns, another of twelve, and the last 
of upwards of thirty. From all which we plied the town 
incessantly and with all imaginable fury, and very often in 
whole volleys. 

Nevertheless, it was thought not only advisable, but 
necessary, to erect another battery upon a lower piece of 
ground, under a small hill ; which, lying more within reach, 
and opposite to those places where the walls were imagined 
weakest, would annoy the town the more; and being de- 
signed for six guns only, might soon be perfected. A French 
engineer had the direction ; and, indeed, very quickly per- 
fected it. But, when it came to be considered which way to 



334 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

get the cannon to it, most were of opinion that it would be 
absolutely impracticable, by reason of the vast descent; 
though, I believe, they might have added a stronger reason, 
and perhaps more intrinsic, that it was extremely exposed to 
the fire of the enemy. 

Having gained some little reputation in the attack of 
Monjouick, this difficulty was at last to be put upon me; 
and as some, not my enemies, supposed, more out of envy 
than good will. However, when I came to the place, and 
had carefully taken a view of it, though I was sensible 
enough of the difficulty, I made my main objection as to the 
time for accomplishing it ; for it was then between nine and 
ten, and the guns were to be mounted by daylight. Neither 
could I at present see any other way to answer their ex- 
pectations, than by casting the cannon down the precipice, 
at all hazards, to the place below, where that fourth battery 
was erected. 

This wanted not objections to ; and, therefore, to answer 
my purpose, as to point of time, sixty men more were 
ordered me, as much as possible to facilitate the work by 
numbers ; and, accordingly, I set about it. Just as I was 
setting all hands to work, and had given orders to my men 
to begin some paces back, to make the descent more gradual, 
and thereby render the task a little more feasible, Major 
Collier, who commanded the train, came to me; and per- 
ceiving the difficulties to the undertaking, in a fret told me 
I was imposed upon, and vowed he would go and find out 
Brigadier Petit, and let him know the impossibility, as well 
as the unreasonableness, of the task I was put upon. He had 
scarce uttered those words, and turned himself round to 
perform his promise, when an unlucky shot with a musket- 
ball wounded him through the shoulder ; upon which he was 
carried off, and I saw him not till some considerable time 
after. 

By the painful diligence, and the additional complement 
of men, however, I so well succeeded (such was my great 
good fortune), that the way was made, and the guns, by the 
help of fascines, and other lesser preparations below, safely - 
let down and mounted ; so that that fourth battery began to 
play upon the town before break of day, and with all the 
success that was proposed. 

In short, the breach, in a very few days after, was found 



THE DUCHESS OF POPOLI CRAVES PROTECTION. 335 

wholly practicable ; and all things were got ready for a 
general storm. Which Don Yalasco, the governor, being 
sensible of, immediately beat a parley ; upon which it was, 
among other articles, concluded that the town should be 
surrendered in three days ; and the better to ensure it, the 
bastion, which commanded the port St. Angelo, was directly 
put into our possession. 

But before the expiration of the limited three days, a very 
unexpected accident fell out, which hastened the surrender. 
Don Valasco, during his government, had behaved himself 
very arbitrarily, and thereby procured, as the consequence of 
it, a large proportion of ill will, not only among the towns- 
men, but among the Miquelets, who had, in their zeal to 
King Charles, flocked from all parts of Catalonia to the 
siege of their capital; and who, on the signing of the 
articles of surrender, had found various ways, being well 
acquainted with the most private avenues, to get by night 
into the town ; so that early in the morning they began to 
plunder all that they knew enemies to King Charles, or 
thought friends to the prince, his competitor. 

Their main design was upon Valasco, the governor, 
whom, if they could have got into their hands, it was not 
to be questioned, but as far as his life and limbs would have 
served, they would have sufficiently satiated their vengeance 
upon. He expected no less, and therefore concealed himself, 
till the Earl of Peterborow could give orders for his more 
safe and private conveyance by sea to Alicant. 

Nevertheless, in the town all was in the utmost confusion; 
which the Earl of Peterborow, at the very first hearing, 
hastened to appease ; with his usual alacrity, he rode all 
alone to Port St. Angelo, where, at that time, myself hap- 
pened to be ; and demanding to be admitted, the officer of 
the guard, under fear and surprise, opened the wicket, 
through which the earl entered, and I after him. 

Scarce had we gone a hundred paces, when we saw a lady 
of apparent quality, and indisputable beauty, in a strange, 
but most affecting agony, flying from the apprehended fury 
of the Miquelets ; her lovely hair was all flowing about her 
shoulders, which, and the consternation she was in, rather 
added to, than anything diminished, from the charms of an 
excess of beauty. She, as is very natural to people in 
distress, made up directly to the earl, her eyes satisfying her 



336 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

he was a person likely to give her all the protection she 
wanted. And, as soon as ever she came near enough, in a 
manner that declared her quality before she spoke, she 
craved that protection, telling him, the better to secure it, 
who it was that asked it. But the generous earl presently 
convinced her he wanted no entreaties, having, before he 
knew her to be the Duchess of Popoli, taken her by the 
hand, in order to convey her through the wicket, which he 
entered at, to a place of safety without the town. 

I stayed behind, while the earl conveyed the distressed 
duchess to her requested asylum ; and I believe it was much 
the longest part of an hour before he returned. But as soon as 
ever he came back, he, and myself at his command, repaired to 
the place of most confusion, which the extraordinary noise full 
readily directed us to ; and which happened to be on the 
parade before the palace. There it was that the Miquelets 
were making their utmost efforts to get into their hands the 
almost sole occasion of the tumult, and the object of their 
raging fury, the person of Don Valasco, the late governor. 

It was here that the earl preserved that governor from the 
violent, but perhaps too just resentments of the Miquelets ; 
and, as I said before, conveyed him by sea to Alicant. And, 
indeed, I could little doubt the effect, or be anything surprised 
at the easiness of the task, when I saw that wherever he 
appeared the popular fury was in a moment allayed, and that 
every dictate of that general was assented to with the utmost 
cheerfulness and deference. Valasco, before his embarkment, 
had given orders, in gratitude to his preserver, for all the gates 
to be delivered up, though short of the stipulated term ; and 
they were accordingly so delivered, and . our troops took 
possesison so soon as ever that governor was aboard the ship 
that was to convey him to Alicant. 

During the siege of Barcelona, Brigadier Stanhope ordered 
a tent to be pitched as near the trenches as possibly could be 
with safety ; where he not only entertained the chief officers 
who were upon duty, but likewise the Catalonian gentlemen 
who brought Miquelets to our assistance. I remember I saw 
an old cavalier, having his only son with him, who appeared 
a fine young gentleman, about twenty years of age, go into 
the tent, in order to dine with the brigadier. But, whilst they 
were at dinner, an unfortunate shot came from the bastion of 
St. Antonio, and entirely struck off the head of the son. The 



PROCESSION OF THE CITIZENS OF BARCELONA. 337 

father immediately rose up, first looking down upon his head- 
less child, and then lifting up his eyes to heaven, whilst the 
tears ran down his cheeks, he crossed himself, and only said, 
Fiat voluntas tua! and bore it with a wonderful patience. It was 
a sad spectacle, and truly it affects me now whilst I am writing. 

The Earl of Peterborow, though for some time after the 
revolution he had been employed in civil affairs, returned to 
the military life with great satisfaction, which was ever his 
inclination. Brigadier Stanhope, who was justly afterwards 
created an earl, did well deserve this motto, Tarn Marte quam 
Mer curio ; for truly he behaved, all the time he continued in 
Spain, as if he had been inspired with conduct ; for the victory 
at Almanar was entirely owing to him ; and likewise at the 
battle of Saragosa he distinguished himself with great bravery. 
That he had not success at Bruhega was not his fault, for no 
man can resist fate ; for it was decreed by heaven, that Philip 
should remain King of Spain, and Charles to be Emperor ot 
Germany. Yet each of these monarchs have been ungrateful 
to the instruments which the Almighty made use of to preserve 
them upon their thrones ; for one had not been King of Spain 
but for France; and the other had not been emperor but 
for England. 

Barcelona, the chief place in Catalonia, being thus in our 
hands, as soon as the garrison, little inferior to our army, had 
marched out with drums beating, colours flying, &c, according 
to the articles, Charles III. made his public entry, and was 
proclaimed king, and received with the general acclamations, 
and all other demonstrations of joy suitable to that great 
occasion. 

Some days after which, the citizens, far from being satiated 
with their former demonstrations of their duty, sent a petition 
to the king, by proper deputies for that purpose appointed, 
desiring leave to give more ample instances of their affections 
in a public cavalcade. The king granted their request, and 
the citizens, pursuant thereto, made their preparations. 

On the day appointed, the king, placed in a balcony 
belonging to the house of the Earl of Peterborow, appeared 
ready to honour the show. The ceremonial, to speak nothing 
figuratively, was very fine and grand : those of the first rank 
made their appearance in decent order, and upon fine horses ; 
and others under arms, and in companies, marched with native 
gravity and grandeur, all saluting his majesty as they passed 

VOL. II. z 



338 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON". 

by, after the Spanish manner, which that prince returned with 
the movement of his hand to his mouth ; for the Kings 01 
Spain are not allowed to salute, or return a salute by any 
motion to, or of, the hat. 

After these followed several pageants ; the first of which 
was drawn by mules, set off to the height with stateliest 
feathers, and adorned with little bells. Upon the top of this 
pageant appeared a man dressed all in green, but in the like- 
ness of a dragon. The pageant making a stop just over 
against the balcony where the king sat, the dragonical 
representative diverted him with great variety of dancings ; 
the Earl of Peterborow all the time throwing out dollars by 
handfuls among the populace, which they as constantly 
received with the loud acclamation, and repeated cries of 
Viva, Viva, Carlos Terceros ! Viva la Casa d* Austria ! 

When that had played its part, another pageant, drawn as 
before, made a like full stop before the same balcony. On 
this was placed a very large cage, or aviary, the cover of 
which, by springs contrived for that purpose, immediately 
flew open, and out of it a surprising flight of birds of various 
colours. These, all amazed at their su Iden liberty, which I 
took to be the emblem intended, hovered a considerable space 
of time over and about their place of freedom, chirping, 
singing, and otherwise testifying their mighty joy for their so 
unexpected enlargement. 

There were many other pageants ; but, having little in them 
very remarkable, I have forgot the particulars. Nevertheless, 
every one of them was dismissed with the like acclamations 
of Viva, Viva; the whole concluding with bonfires and 
illuminations, common on all such occasions. 

I. cannot here omit one very remarkable instance of the 
catholic zeal of that prince, which I was soon after an 
eyewitness of. I was at that time in the fruit-market, when 
the king passing by in his coach, the host, whether by 
accident, or contrivance, I cannot say, was brought, at that 
very juncture, out of the great church, in order, as I after 
understood, to a poor sick woman's receiving the sacrament. 

On sight of the host, the king came out of his coach, 
kneeled down in the street, which at that time proved to be 
very dirty, till the host passed by ; then rose up, and taking 
the lighted flambeau from him who bore it, he followed the 
priest up a straight nasty alley, and there up a dark ordinary 



MERRIMENT OVER A DRUNKEN GRENADIER. 339 

pair of stairs, where the poor sick woman lay. There he 
stayed till the whole ceremony was over, when, returning 
to the door of the church, he very faithfully restored the 
lighted flambeau to the fellow he had taken it from, the people 
all the while crying out, Viva, Viva ! an acclamation, we may 
imagine, intended to his zeal, as well as his person. 

Another remarkable accident, of a much more moral nature, 
I must, in justice to the temperance of that, in this, truly 
inimitable people, recite. I was one day walking in one of 
the most populous streets of that city, 'when I found an 
uncommon concourse of people, of all sorts, got together; and 
imagining so great a crowd could not be assembled on a small 
occasion, I prest in among the rest ; and, after a good deal of 
struggling and difficulty, reached into the ring and centre of 
that mixed multitude. But how did I blush, with what 
confusion did I appear, when I found one of my own country- 
men, a drunken grenadier, the attractive loadstone of all the 
high and low mob, and the butt of all their merriment ! It will 
be easily imagined to be a thing not a little surprising to one 
of our country, to find that a drunken man should be such a 
wonderful sight: however, the witty sarcasms that were then, 
by high and low, thrown upon that senseless creature, and, 
as I interpreted matters, me in him, were so pungent, that if 
I did not curse my curiosity, I thought it best to withdraw 
myself as fast as legs could carry me away. 



CHAPTER V. 

BARCELONA UNDER KING CHARLES BOLD PEREMPTORY DE- 
MAND ON THE AUTHORITIES OF NULES IMMEDIATELY TO 

SURRENDER SINGULAR INTERVIEW BETWEEN EARL PETER- 

BOROW AND MAHONI, AND THE RESULT THEREFROxW SHORT 

DESCRIPTION OP VALENCIA, AND PRODIGIOUS VICTORY 

PETERBOROW'S STRATAGEM TO OUTWIT THE FLEET AT 
BARCELONA ULTIMATE RELEASE OF BARCELONA. 

Barcelona being now under King Charles, the towns 
of Gironne, Tarragona, Tortosa, and Lerida, immediately 
declared for him. To every one of which engineers being 
ordered, it was my lot to be sent to Tortosa. This town is 

z 2 



340 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

situated on the side of the river Ebro, over which there is a 
fair and famous bridge of boats. The waters of this river are 
always of a dirty red colour, somewhat fouler than our moor- 
ish waters ; ye-t it is the only water the inhabitants drink, 
or covet to drink ; and every house providing for its own 
convenience cisterns to preserve it in, by a few hours stand- 
ing it becomes as clear as the clearest rock water, but as soft 
as milk. In short, for softness, brightness, and pleasantness 
of taste, the natives prefer it to all the waters in the world : 
and I must declare in favour of their opinion, that none ever 
pleased me like it. 

This town was of the greater moment to our army, as 
opening a passage into the kingdom of Valencia on one side, 
and the kingdom of Arragon on the the other ; and being of 
itself tolerably defensible, in human appearance, might pro- 
bably repay a little care and charge in its repair and improve- 
ment. Upon this employ was I appointed, and thus was I 
busied till the arrival of the Earl of Peterborow with his 
little army, in order to march to Valencia, the capital of that 
province. Here he left in garrison Colonel Hans Hamilton's 
regiment ; the place, nevertheless, was under the command 
of a Spanish governor appointed by King Charles. 

While the earl stayed a few days at this place, under 
expectation of the promised succours from Barcelona, he re- 
ceived a proprio (or express) from the King of Spain, full of 
excuses, instead of forces. And yet the very same letter, in 
a paradoxical manner, commanded him, at all events, to at- 
tempt the relief of Santo Mattheo, where Colonel Jones com- 
manded, and which was then under siege by the Conde de 
los Torres (as was the report), with upwards of three 
thousand men. The Earl of Peterborow could not muster 
above one thousand foot, and about two hundred horse, a 
small force to make an attempt of that nature upon such a 
superior power ; yet the earl's vivacity (as will be occasion- 
ally farther observed in the course of these Memoirs) never 
much regarded numbers, so there was but room, by any 
stratagem, to hope for success. True it is, for his greater 
encouragement and consolation, the same letter intimated, 
that a great concourse of the country people being up in arms, 
to the number of many thousands, in favour of King Charles, 
and wanting only officers, the enterprise would be easy, and- 
unattended with much danger. But, upon mature inquiry, 



EASY MEANS OF MARCHING INTO SANTO MATTHEO. 311 

the earl found that great body of men all in nublbus ; and that 
the conde, in the plain truth of the matter, was much stronger 
than the letter at first represented. 

Santo Mattheo was a place of known importance ; and 
that from its situation, which cut off all communication be- 
tween Catalonia and Valencia ; and, consequently, should it 
fall into the hands of the enemy, the earl's design upon the 
latter must inevitably have been postponed. It must be 
granted, the commands for attempting the relief of it were 
pressing and peremptory : nevertheless, the earl was very 
conscious to himself, that as the promised re-enforcements 
were suspended, his officers would not approve of the attempt 
upon the foot of such vast inequalities ; and their own de- 
clared sentiments soon confirmed the dictates of the earl's 
reason. He therefore addresses himself to those officers in a 
different manner : he told them he only desired they would 
be passive, and leave it to him to work his own way. Ac- 
cordingly, the earl found out and hired two Spanish spies, for 
whose fidelity (as his great precaution always led him to x do) 
he took sufficient security ; and despatched them with a 
letter to Colonel Jones, governor of the place, intimating his 
readiness, as well as ability, to relieve him ; and, above all, 
exhorting him to have the Miquelets in the town ready, on 
sight of his troops, to issue out, pursue, and plunder, since 
that would be all they would have to do, and all he would 
expect at their hands. The spies were despatched accordingly; 
and pursuant to instructions, one betrayed and discovered 
the other, who had the letter in charge to deliver to Colonel 
Jones. The earl, to carry on the feint, having, in the mean 
time, by dividing his troops, and marching secretly over the 
mountains, drawn his men together, so as to make their ap- 
pearance on the height of a neighbouring mountain, little 
more than cannon-shot from the enemy's camp, the tale of 
the spies was fully confirmed; and the conde, though an 
able general, marched off with some precipitation with his 
army ; and, by that means, the earl's smaller number of 
twelve hundred, had liberty to march into the town without 
interruption. I must not let slip an action of Colonel Jones's 
just before the earl's delivery of them. The conde, for want 
of artillery, had set his miners to work ; and the colonel find- 
ing they had made some dangerous advances, turned tha 
course of a rivulet, that ran through the middle of the town. 



342 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

in upon them, and made them quit a work they thougn 
was brought to perfection. 

Santo Mattheo being relieved, as I have said, the earl, 
though he had so far gained his ends, left not the flying 
enemy without a feint of pursuit ; with such caution, never- 
theless, that in case they should happen to be better informed 
of his weakness, he might have a resource either back again 
to Santo Mattheo, or to Vinaros on the sea side ; or some 
other place, as occasion might require. But having just 
before received fresh advice, that the re-enforcements he ex- 
pected were anew countermanded ; and that the Duke of 
Anjou had increased his troops to twelve thousand men ; the 
officers, not enough elated with the last success to adventure 
upon new experiments, resolved, in a council of war, to advise 
the earl, who had just before received a discretionary com- 
mission in lieu of troops, so to post the forces under him, as 
not to be cut off from being able to assist the king in person, 
or to march to the defence of Catalonia, in case of necessity. 

Pursuant to this resolution of the council of war, the Earl 
of Peterborow, though still intent upon his expedition into 
Valencia (which had been afresh commanded, even while his 
supplies were countermanded), orders his foot, in a truly bad 
condition, by tedious marches day and night over the moun- 
tains, to Vinaros ; and with his two hundred horse set out to 
prosecute his pretended design of pursuing the flying enemy ; 
resolved, if possible, notwithstanding all seemingly desperate 
circumstances, to perfect the security of that capital. 

To that purpose, the earl, with his small body of patrolers, 
went on frightening the enemy till they came under the walls 
of Nules, a town fortified with the best walls, regular towers, 
and in the best repair of any in that kingdom. But even 
here, upon the appearance of the earl's forlorn (if they might 
not properly at that time all have passed under that character), 
under the same panic they left that fencible town, with only 
one thousand of the townspeople, well armed, for the defence 
of it. Yet was it scarce to be imagined, that the earl, with 
his small body of two hundred horse, should be able to gain 
admission ; or, indeed, under such circumstances, to attempt 
it. But, bold as the undertaking was, his good genins went 
along with him ; and so good a genius was it, that it rarely 
left him without a good effect. He had been told the day 
before, that the enemy, on leaving Nules, had got possession 



NEWS OF THE TAKING OF NULES. 343 

of Villa Real, where they put all to the sword. What would 
have furnished another with terror, inspired his lordship with 
a thought as fortunate as it was successful. The earl rides 
up to the very gates of the town, at the head of his party, 
and peremptorily demands the chief magistrate, or a priest, 
immediately to be sent out to him ; and that under penalty 
of being all put to the sword, and used as the enemy had 
used those at Villa Real the day or two before. The troops, 
that had so lately left the place, had left behind them more 
terror than men ; which, together with the peremptory de- 
mand of the earl, soon produced some priests to wait upon 
the general. By their readiness to obey, the earl very justly 
imagined fear to be the motive ; wherefore, to improve their 
terror, he only allowed them six minute's time to resolve 
upon a surrender, telling them that otherwise, so soon as his 
artillery was come up, he would lay them under the utmost 
extremities. The priests returned with this melancholy 
message into the place ; and in a very short time after the 
gates were thrown open. Upon the earl's entrance, he found 
two hundred horse, which were the original of his lordship's 
forming that body of horse, which afterwards proved tlie 
saving of Valencia. ■ 

The news of the taking of Nules soon overtook the flying 
enemy ; and so increased the apprehensions of their danger, 
that they renewed their march the same day ; though what 
they had taken before would have satisfied them much better 
without it. On the other hand, the earl was so well pleased 
with his success, that, leaving the enemy to fly before their 
fears, he made a short turn towards Castillon de la Plana, a 
considerable, but open town, where his lordship furnished 
himself with four hundred horses more ; and all this under 
the assurance that his troops were driving the enemy before 
them out of the kingdom. Hence he sent orders to Colonel 
Pierce's regiment at Vinaros to meet him at Oropesa, a place 
at no great distance ; where, when they came, they were very 
pleasingly surprised at their being well mounted, and 
furnished with all accoutrements necessary. After which, 
leaving them cantoned in walled towns, where they could not 
be disturbed without artillery, that indefatigable general, 
leaving them full orders, went on his way towards Tortosa. 

At Vinaros the earl met with advice, that the Spanish 
militia of the kingdom of Valencia were assembled, and had 



344 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIX CARLETON. 

already advanced, a day's march at least into that country. 
Upon which, collecting, as fast as he could, the whole corps 
together, the earl resolved to penetrate into Valencia directly ; 
notwithstanding this whole collected body would amount to 
no more than six hundred horse and two thousand foot. 

But there was a strong pass over a river, just under the 
walls of Molviedro, which must be first disputed and taken. 
This, Brigadier Mahoni, by the orders of the Duke of Arcos, 
who commanded the troops of the Duke of Anjou in the 
kingdom of Valencia, had taken care to secure. Molviedro, 
though not very strong, is a walled town, very populous of 
itself, and had in it, besides a garrison of eight hundred men, 
most of Mahoni's dragoons. It lies at the very bottom of a 
high hill ; on the upper part whereof they show the ruins of 
the once famous Saguntum ; famous sure to eternity, if letters 
shall last so long, for an inviolable fidelity to a negligent 
confederate, against an implacable enemy. Here yet appear 
the visible vestigia of awful antiquity, in half standing arches, 
and the yet unlevelled walls and towers of that once celebrated 
city. I could not but look upon all these with the eyes of 
despite, in regard to their enemy Hannibal ; with those of 
disdain, in respect to the uncommon and unaccountable 
supineness of its confederates, the Romans ; but with those 
of veneration, as to the memory of a glorious people, who, 
rather than stand reproached with a breach of faith, or the 
brand of cowardice, chose to sacrifice themselves, their 
wives, children, and all that was dear to them, in the flames 
of their expiring city. 

In Molviedro, as I said before, Mahoni commanded, with 
eight hundred men, besides inhabitants ; which, together 
with our having but little artillery, induced the officers, under 
the Earl of Peterborow, reasonably enough to imagine and 
declare, that there could be no visible appearance of 
surmounting such difficulties. The earl, nevertheless, instead 
of indulging such despondencies, gave them hope, that what 
strength served not to accomplish, art might possibly obtain. 
To that purpose, he proposed an interview between himself 
and Mahoni ; and accordingly sent an officer with a trumpet 
to intimate his desire. The motion was agreed to ; and the 
earl having previously stationed his troops to advantage, and 
his little artillery at a convenient distance, with orders they 
should appear on a slow march on the side of a rising hill, 



CAPITULATION OF MOLVIEDRO. 345 

during the time of conference, went to the place appointed ; 
only, as had been stipulated, attended with a small party of 
horse. When they were met, the earl first offered all he 
could to engage Mahoni to the interest of King Charles ; 
proposing some things extravagant enough (as Mahoni 
himself some time after told me) to stagger the faith of a 
catholic ; but all to little purpose : Mahoni was inflexible, 
which obliged the earl to new measures. 

Whereupon the earl frankly told him, that he could not, 
however, but esteem the confidence he had put in him ; and, 
therefore, to make some retaliation, he was ready to put it in 
his power to avoid the barbarities lately executed at Villa 
Real. My relation to you, continued the general, inclines 
me to spare a town under your command. You see how 
near my forces are ; and can hardly doubt our soon being 
masters of the place ; what I would therefore offer you, said 
the earl, is a capitulation, that my inclination may be held in 
countenance by my honour. Barbarities, however justified 
by example, are my utter aversion, and against my nature ; 
and to testify so much, together with my good will to your 
person, was the main intent of this interview. 

This frankness so far prevailed on Mahoni, that he agreed 
to return an answer in half an hour. Accordingly, an 
answer was returned by a Spanish officer, and a capitulation 
agreed upon : the earl at the same time endeavouring to 
bring over that officer to King Charles, on much the same 
topics he used with Mahoni. But finding this equally fruit- 
less, whether it was that he tacitly reproached the officer 
with a want of consideration in neglecting to follow the 
example of his commander, or what else, he created in that 
officer such a jealousy of Mahoni, that was afterward very 
serviceable to him in his farther design. 

To forward which to a good issue, the earl immediately 
made choice of two dragoons, who, upon promise of promotion, 
undertook to go as spies to the Duke of Arcos, whose forces 
lay not far off, on the other side a large plain, which the 
earl must unavoidably pass, and which would inevitably be 
attended with almost insuperable dangers, if there attacked 
by a force so much superior. Those spies, according to 
instructions, were to discover to the duke, that they overheard 
the conference between the earl and Mahoni ; and at the 
same time saw a considerable number of pistoles delivered 



346 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

into MaTioni's hands, large promises passing at that instant 
reciprocally ; but above all, that the earl had recommended 
to him the procuring the march of the duke over the plain 
between them. The spies went and delivered all according 
to concert ; concluding, before the duke, that they would ask 
no reward, but undergo any punishment, it Mahoni did not 
very soon send to the duke a request to march over the plain, 
in order to put the concerted plot in execution. It was not 
long after this pretended discovery, before Mahoni did send 
indeed an officer to the duke, desiring the march of his forces 
over the plain ; but, in reality, to obstruct the earl's passage, 
which he knew very well must be that and no other way. 
However, the duke being prepossessed by the spies, and what 
those Spanish officers that at first escaped had before infused, 
took things in their sense ; and as soon as Mahoni, who was 
forced to make the best of his way over the plain before the 
Earl of Peterborow, arrived at his camp, he was put under 
arrest, and sent to Madrid. The duke having thus imbibed 
the venom, and taken the alarm, immediately decamped in 
confusion, and took a different route than at first he intended ; 
leaving that once formidable plain open to the earl, without 
an ^ enemy to obstruct him. In some little time after he 
arrived at Madrid, Mahoni made his innocence appear, and 
was created a general ; while the Duke of Arcos was recalled 
from his post of honour. 

The day after, we arrived at Valencia ; the gates of which 
fine city were set open to us with the highest demonstrations 
°fj°7- I ca ll it a fine city; but sure it richly deserves a 
brighter epithet; since it is a common saying among the 
Spaniards, that, The pleasures of Valencia would make a 
Jew forget Jerusalem. It is most sweetly situated in a very 
beautiful plain, and within half a league of the Mediterranean 
sea. It never wants any of the fragrancies of nature, and 
always has something to delight the most curious eye. It is 
famous to a proverb for fine women ; but as infamous, and 
only in that so, for the race of bravoes, the common com- 
panions of the ladies of pleasure in this country. These 
wretches are so case-hardened they will commit a murder for 
a dollar, though they run their country for it when they have 
done. Not that other parts of this nation are uninfested 
with this sort of animals ; but here their numbers are so great, 
that if a catalogue was to be taken of those in other parts of 



SIX HUNDRED PRISONERS TAKEN TO VALENCIA. 347 

that country, perhaps nine in ten would be found by birth to 
be of this province. 

But to proceed: though the citizens, and all sorts of people, 
were redundant in their various expressions of joy, for an 
entry so surprising, and utterly lost to their expectation, 
whatever it was to their wishes, the earl had a secret con- 
cern for the public, which lay gnawing at his heart, and which 
yet he was forced to conceal. He knew, that he had not four 
thousand soldiers in the place, and not powder or ammunition 
for those ; nor any provisions laid in for anything like a siege. 
On the other hand, the enemy without were upwards of seven 
thousand, with a body of four thousand more, not fifteen 
leagues off, on their march to join them. Add to this, the 
Mareschal de Thesse was no farther off than Madrid, a very 
few days' march from Valencia ; a short way indeed for the 
earl, who, as was said before, was wholly unprovided for a 
siege, which was reported to be the sole end of the mareschal's 
moving that way. But the earl's never-failing genius re- 
solved again to attempt that by art, which the strength of his 
forces utterly disallowed him. And in the first place, his 
intelligence telling him that sixteen twenty-four-pounders, 
with stores and ammunition answerable for a siege, were 
shipped off for the enemy's service at Alicant, the earl forth- 
with lays a design, and with his usual success intercepts them 
all, supplying that way his own necessities at the expense of 
the enemy. 

The four thousand men ready to re-enforce the troops nearer 
Valencia, were the next point to be undertaken ; but hie labor, 
hoc opus; since the greater body under the Conde de las 
Torres, who, with Mahoni, was now re-instated in his post, 
lay between the earl and those troops intended to be dis- 
persed. And what enhanced the difficulty, the river Xucar 
must be passed in almost the face of the enemy. Great dis- 
advantages as these were, they did not discourage the earl. 
He detached by night four hundred horse and eight hundred 
foot, who marched with such hasty silence, that they sur- 
prised that great body, routed them, and brought into Valencia 
six hundred prisoners very safely, notwithstanding they were 
obliged, under the same night covert, to pass very near a 
body of three thousand of the enemy's horse. Such a pro- 
digious victory would hardly have gained credit in that city, 
if the prisoners brought in had not been living witnesses of 



348 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

the action, as well as the triumph. The Conde de las Torres, 
upon these two military rebuffs, drew off to a more con- 
venient distance, and left the earl a little more at ease in his 
new quarters. 

Here the Earl of Peterborow made his residence for some 
time. He was extremely well beloved ; his affable behaviour 
exacted as much from all ; and he preserved such a good 
correspondence with the priests and the ladies, that he never 
failed of the most early and best intelligence ; a thing by no 
means to be slighted in the common course of life ; but much 
more commendable and necessary in a general, with so small 
an army, at open war, and in the heart of his enemy's 
country. 

The earl, by this means, some small time after, receiving 
early intelligence that King Philip was actually on his march 
to Barcelona, with an army of upwards of twenty-five thou- 
sand men, under the command of a mareschal of France, 
began his march towards Catalonia, with all the troops that 
he could gather together, leaving in Valencia a small body of 
foot, such as in that exigence could best be spared. The 
whole body thus collected made very little more than two 
thousand foot and six hundred horse ; yet resolutely with 
these he sets out for Barcelona : in the neighbourhood of 
which, as soon as he arrived, he took care to post himself and 
his diminutive army in the mountaius which environ that 
city ; where he not only secured them against the enemy, but 
found himself in a capacity of putting them under perpetual 
alarms. Nor was the mareschal, with his great army, capable 
of returning the earl's compliment of disturbance ; since he 
himself, every six or eight hours, put his troops into such a 
varying situation, that always when most arduously sought, 
he was farthest off from being found. In this manner the 
general bitterly harassed the troops of the enemy, and by 
these means struck a perpetual terror into the besiegers. 
Nor did he only this way annoy the enemy ; the precautions 
he had used, and the measures he had taken in other places, 
with a view to prevent their return to Madrid, though the 
invidious endeavoured to bury them in oblivion, having equally 
contributed to the driving of the Mareschal of France, and 
his catholic king out of the Spanish dominions. 

But to go on with the siege : the breaches in the walls of 
that city, during its siege by the earl, had been put into tole- 



TAKING OF THE FORT OF MONJOUICK. 349 

rable repair ; but those of Monjouick, on the contrary, had 
been as much neglected. However, the garrison made shift 
to hold out a battery of twenty-three days, with no less than 
fifty pieces of cannon ; when, after a loss of the enemy of 
upwards of three thousand men (a moiety of the army em- 
ployed against it when the earl took it), they were forced to 
surrender at discretion. And this cannot but merit our ob- 
servation, that a place which the English general took in 
little more than an hour, and with very inconsiderable loss, 
afforded the Mareschal of France a resistance of twenty-three 
days. 

Upon the taking of Fort Monjouick, the Mareschal de Thesse 
gave immediate orders for batteries to be raised against the 
town. Those orders were put in execution with all expedition ; 
and at the same time his army fortified themselves with such 
intrenchments, as would have ruined the earl's former little 
army to have raised, or his present much lesser army to have 
attempted the forcing them. However, they sufficiently 
demonstrated their apprehensions of that watchful general, 
who lay hovering over their heads upon the mountains. 
Their main effort was to make a breach between Port St. 
Antonio and that breach which our forces had made the year 
before ; to effect which, they took care to ply them very dili- 
gently both from cannon and mortars ; and in some few days 
their application was answered with a practicable breach for 
a storm ; which, however, was prudently deferred for some 
time, and that through fear of the earl's falling on the back 
of them whenever they should attempt it, which, consequently, 
they were sensible, might put them into some dangerous 
disorder. 

And now it was that the Earl of Peterborow resolved to 
put in practice the resolution he had some time before con- 
certed within himself. About nine or ten days before the 
raising the siege, he had received an express from Brigadier 
Stanhope (who was aboard Sir John Leake's fleet, appointed 
for the relief of the place, with the re-enforcements from 
England), acquainting the earl, that he had used all possible 
endeavours to prevail on the admiral to make the best of his 
way to Barcelona ; but that the admiral, however, persisted 
in a positive resolution not to attempt the French fleet before 
that place under the Count de Tholouse, till the ships 
were joined him, which were expected from Ireland, under 



350 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

the command of Sir George Bing. True it was, the fleet 
under Admiral Leake was of equal strength with that under 
the French admiral ; but, jealous of the informations he had 
received, and too ready to conclude that people in distress 
were apt to make representations too much in their own 
favour ; he held himself, in point of discretion, obliged not to 
hazard the queen's ships, when a re-enforcement of both 
cleaner and larger were under daily expectation. 

This unhappy circumstance (notwithstanding all former 
glorious deliverances), had almost brought the earl to the 
brink of despair; and, to increase it, the earl every day 
received such commands from the king within the place, as 
must have sacrificed his few forces, without the least proba- 
bility of succeeding. Those all tended to his forcing his 
way into the town ; when, in all human appearance, not one 
man of all that should make the attempt could have done it, 
with any hope or prospect of surviving. The French were 
strongly encamped at the foot of the mountaius, distant two 
miles from Barcelona : towards the bottom of those hills, the 
avenues into the plain were possessed and fortified by great 
detachments from the enemy's army. From all which it will 
be evident, that no attempt could be made without giving the 
enemy time to draw together what body of foot they pleased. 
Or, supposing it feasible, under all these difficult circum- 
stances, for some of them to have forced their passage, the 
remainder, that should have been so lucky to have escaped 
their foot, would have found themselves exposed in open field 
to a pursuit of four thousand horse and dragoons ; and that 
for two miles together ; when, in case of their enclosing them, 
the bravest troops in the world, under such a situation, would 
have found it their best way to have surrendered themselves 
prisoners of war. 

Nevertheless, when Brigadier Stanhope sent that express 
to the earl, which I just now mentioned, he assured him in 
the same, that he would use his utmost dilligence, both by 
sea and land, to let him have timely notice of the conjunction 
of the fleets, which was now all tliey had to depend upon : 
adding withal, that if the earl should at any time receive a 
letter, or paper, though directed to nobody, and with nothing 
in it but a half sheet of paper cut in the middle, he, the earl, 
might certainly depend upon it that the two fleets were joined, 
and making the best of their way for Barcelona. It will 



NOVEL EXPERIMENT TO REACH BARCELONA. 351 

easily be imagined the express was to be well paid.; and 
being made sensible that he ran little or no hazard in carrying 
a piece of blank paper, he undertook it, and as fortunately 
arrived with it to the earl, at a moment when chagrin and 
despair might have kr.rried him to some resolution that might 
nave proved fatal. The messenger himself, however, knew 
nothing of the joining of the fleets, or the meaning of his 
message. 

As soon as the Earl of Peterborow received this welcome 
message from Brigadier ^tanhop- 1 " he marched the very same 
night, with nis whole little body of forces, to a town on the 
sea shore, called Sigeth. No person guessed the reason of 
his march, or knew anything of what the intent of it was. 
The officers, as formerly, obeyed without inquiry, for they 
were led to it by so many unaccountable varieties of success, 
that affiance became a second nature, both in officer and 
soldier. 

The town of Sigeth was about seven leagues to the west- . 
ward of Barcelona ; where, as socn as the earl with his forces 
arrived, he took care to secure all the small fishing-boats, 
feluccas, and sattees ; nay, in a word, every machine in 
which he could transport any of his men ; so that in two 
days' time he had got together a number sufficient for the 
conveyance of all his foot. 

But, a day or two before the arrival of the English fleet 
off Sigeth, the officers of his troops were under a strange 
consternation at a resolution their general had taken. Impa- 
tient of delay, and fearful of the fleets passing by without his 
knowledge, the earl summoned them together a little before 
night, at which time he discovered to the whole assembly, 
that he himself was obliged to endeavour to get aboard the 
English fleet ; and that, if possible, before the French scouts 
should be able to make any discovery of their strength : that, 
finding himself of no farther use on shore, having already 
taken the necessary precautions for their transportation and 
security, they had nothing to do but pursue his orders, and 
make the best of their way to Barcelona in the vessels which 
he had provided for them : that they might do this in perfect 
security when they saw the English fleet pass by ; or if they 
should pass by in the night, an engagement with the French* 
which would be an inevitable consequence, would give them 
sufficient notice what they had to do farther. 



352 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

This declaration, instead of satisfying, made the officers 
ten times more curious ; but when they saw their general 
going, with a resolution to lie out all night at sea, in an open 
boat, attended with only one officer, and understood that he 
intended to row out in his felucca five or six leagues distance 
from the shore, it is hardly to be expressed what amazement 
and concern surprised them all. Mr. Crow, the queen's 
minister, and others, expressed a particular dislike and 
uneasiness ; but all to no purpose, the earl had resolved upon 
it. Accordingly, at night, he put out to sea in his open 
felucca, all which he spent five leagues from shore, with no 
other company than one captain and his rowers. 

In the morning, to the great satisfaction of all, officers and 
others, the earl came again to land ; and immediately began 
to put his men into the several vessels which lay ready in 
port for that purpose. But at night their amaze was renewed, 
when they found their general ready to put in execution his 
old resolution, in the same equipage, and with the same 
attendance. Accordingly, he again felucca' d himself; and 
they saw him no more tiil they were landed on the mole in 
Barcelona. 

When the Earl of Peterborow first engaged hims\ If in the 
expedition to Spain, he proposed to the queen and her 
ministry, that Admiral Shovel might be joined in commission 
with him in command of the fleet. But this year, when the 
fleet came through the Straits, under Vice-admiral Leake, 
the queen had sent a commission to the Earl of Peterborow 
for the full command whenever he thought fit to come aboard 
in person. This it was that made the general endeavour, at 
all hazards, to get aboard the fleet by night ; for he was 
apprehensive, and the sequel proved his apprehensions too 
well grounded, that Admiral Leake would make his appear- 
ance with the whole body of the fleet, which made near twice 
the number of the ships of the enemy ; in which case it was 
natural to suppose, that the Count de Tholouse, as soon as 
ever the French scouts should give notice of our strength, 
would cut his cables and put out to sea to avoid an engage- 
ment. On the other hand, the earl was very sensible, that if 
a part of his ships had kept astern, that the superiority might 
have appeared on the French side ; or rather, if they had 
bore away in the night, towards the coast of Africa, and 
fallen to the eastward of Barcelona the next day, a battle ha'" 



TROOPS LANDED IN BARCELONA. 353 

been inevitable, and a victory equally certain ; since the 
enemy, by this means, had been tempted into an engagement, 
and their retreat being cut off, and their whole fleet surrounded 
with almost double their number, there had hardly been left 
for any of them a probability of escaping. 

Therefore, when the Earl of Peterborow put to sea again 
the second evening, fearful of losing such a glorious oppor- 
tunity, and impatient to be aboard to give the necessary 
orders, he ordered his rowers to obtain the same station, in 
order to discover the English fleet. And according to his 
wishes he did fall in with it ; but unfortunately the night 
was so far advanced, that it was impossible for him then to 
put his project into practice. Captain Price, a gentleman of 
Wales, who commanded a third-rate, was the person he first, 
came aboard of; but how amazed was he to find, in an open 
boat, at open sea, the person who had commission to com- 
mand the fleet ! So soon as he was entered the ship, the 
earl sent the ship's pinnace with letters to Admiral Leake, to 
acquaint him with his orders and intentions ; and to Brigadier 
Stanhope, with a notification of his safe arrival; but the dark- 
ness of the night proved so great an obstacle, that it was a 
long time before the pinnace could reach the admiral. When 
day appeared, it was astonishing to the whole fleet, to see 
the union flag waving at the main-topmast head. Nobody 
could trust his own eyes, or guess at the meaning, till better 
certified by the account of an event so singular and extra- 
ordinary. 

When we were about six leagues' distance from Barcelona, 
the port we aimed at, one of the French scouts gave the 
alarm, who making the signal to another, he communicated 
it to a third, and so on, as we afterward sorrowfully found, 
and as the earl had before apprehended. The French ad- 
miral being thus made acquainted with the force of our fleet, 
hoisted sail, and made the best of his way from us, either 
pursuant to orders, or under the plausible excuse of a re- 
treat. 

This favourable opportunity thus lost, there remained 
nothing to do but to land the troops with all expedition ; 
which was executed accordingly : the regiments, which the 
Earl of Peterborow embarked the night before, being the 
first that got into the town. Let the reader imagine how 
pleasing such a sight must be to those in Barcelona, reduced 

VOL. II. A A 



354 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

as they were to the last extremity. In this condition to see 
an enemy's fleet give way to another with reinforcements 
trom England, the sea at the same instant covered with little 
vessels, crowded with greater succours ; what was there want- 
ing to complete the glorious scene, but what the general had 
projected, a fight at sea, under the very walls of the in- 
vested city, and the ships of the enemy sinking, or towed in 
by the victorious English ! But night, and a few hours, de- 
feated the latter part of that well-intended landscape. 

King Philip, and the Mareschal of France, had not failed 
to push on the siege with all imaginable vigour'; but this re- 
treat of the Count de Tholouse, and the news of those rein- 
forcements, soon changed the scene. Their courage without 
was abated proportionably, as theirs within was elated. In 
these circumstances, a council of war being called, it was 
unanimously resolved to raise the siege. Accordingly, next 
morning, the first of May, 1706, while the sun was under a 
total eclipse, in a suitable hurry and confusion, they broke 
up, leaving behind them most of their cannon and mortars, 
together with vast quantities of all sorts of ammunition and 
provisions, scarce stopping to look back till they had left all 
but the very verge of the disputed dominion behind them. 

King Charles looked with new pleasure upon this lucky effort 
of his old deliverers. Captivity is a state no way desirable 
to persons however brave, of the most private station in life ; 
but for a king, within two days of falling into the hands of 
his rival, to receive so seasonable and unexpected a deliver- 
ance, must be supposed, as it really did, to open a scene to 
universal rejoicing among us, too high for any words to ex- 
press, or any thoughts to imagine, to those that were not 
present and partakers of it. He forthwith gave orders for a 
medal to be struck suitable to the occasion ; one of which, 
set round with diamonds, he presented to Sir John Leake, 
the English admiral. The next orders were for recasting all 
the damaged brass cannon which the enemy had left ; upon 
every one of which was, by order, a sun eclipsed, with this 
motto under it : Magna parvis obscurantur. 

I have often wondered that I never heard anybody curious 
enough to inquire what could be the motives to the King of 
Spain's quitting his dominions upon the raising of this siege ; 
very certain it i3, that he had a fine army, under the com- 
mand of a mareschal of France, not very considerably de- 



CONTRAST OF THE CONTENDING POWERS. 355 

creased, either by action or desertion ; but all this would 
rather increase the curiosity than abate it. In my opinion, 
then, though men might have curiosity enough, the question 
was purposely evaded, under an apprehension, that an honest 
answer must inevitably give a higher idea of the general, 
than their inclinations led them to. At first view, this may 
carry the face of a paradox ; yet, if the reader will consider, 
that in every age virtue has had its shaders or maligners, he 
will himself easily solve it, at the same time that he finds 
himself compelled to allow, that those who found themselves 
unable to prevent his great services, were willing, in a more 
subtile manner, to endeavour at the annulling of them by 
silence and concealment. 

This will appear more than bare supposition, if we com- 
pare the present situation, as to strength, of the two contend- 
ing powers. The French, at the birth of the siege, consisted 
of five thousand horse and dragoons, and twenty-five thou- 
sand foot ; effective men. Now, grant that their killed and 
wounded, together with their sick in the hospitals, might 
amount to five thousand, yet as their body of horse was entire, 
and in the best condition, the remaining will appear to be an 
army of twenty-five thousand at least. On the other side, all 
the forces in Barcelona, even with their reinforcements, 
amounted to no more than seven thousand foot, and four 
hundred horse. Why then, when they raised their siege, did. 
not they march back into the heart of Spain, with their so 
much superior army? or, at least, towards their capital? 
The answer can be this, and this only ; because the Earl of 
Peterborow had taken such provident care to render all 
secure, that it was thereby rendered next to an impossibility 
for them so to do. That general was satisfied, that the 
capital of Catalonia must, in course, fall into the hands of 
the enemy, unless a superior fleet removed the Count de 
Tholouse, and threw in timely succours into the town ; and 
as that could not depend upon him, but others, he made it 
his chief care and assiduous employment to provide against 
those strokes of fortune to which he found himself again 
likely to be exposed, as he often had been ; and, therefore, 
had he recourse to that vigilance and precaution which had 
often retrieved him, when to others his circumstances seemed 
to be most desperate. 

The generality of mankind, and the French in particular, 

A A 2 



356 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

were of opinion, that the taking Barcelona would prove a 
decisive stroke, and put a period to the war in Spain ; and 
yet at that very instant, I was inclined to believe, that the 
general flattered himself it would be in his power to give the 
enemy sufficient mortification, even though the town should 
be obliged to submit to King Philip. The wise measures 
taken induced me so to believe, and the sequel approved it; for 
the earl had so well expended his caution, that the enemy, on 
the disappointment, found himself under a necessity of quit- 
ting Spain ; and the same would have put him under equal 
difficulties, had he carried the place. The French could 
never have undertaken that siege without depending on their 
fleet for their artillery, ammunition, and provisions; since 
they must be inevitably forced to leave behind them the strong 
towns of Tortosa, Lerida, and Taragona. The earl, there- 
fore, whose perpetual difficulties seemed rather to render him 
more sprightly and vigorous, took care himself to examine 
the whole country between the Ebro and Barcelona ; and, 
upon his doing so, was pleasingly, as well as sensibly satisfied, 
that it was practicable to render their return into the heart of 
Spain impossible, whether they did or did not succeed in the 
siege they were so intent to undertake. 

There were but three ways they could attempt it : the first 
of which was by the sea-side, from Taragona towards Tortosa ; 
the most barren, and consequently the most improper, country 
in the universe to sustain an army ; and yet to the natural, 
the earl had added such artificial difficulties, as rendered it 
absolutely impossible for an army to subsist, or march that 
way. 

The middle way lay through a better country indeed, yet 
only practicable by the care which had been taken to make 
the road so. And even here there was a necessity of marching 
along the side of a mountain, where, by vast labour and in- 
dustry, a highway had been cut for two miles, at least, out of 
the main rock. The earl, therefore, by somewhat of the same 
labour, soon made it impassable. He employed to that end 
many thousands of the country people, under a few of his own 
officers and troops, who, cutting up twenty several places, 
made so many precipices, perpendicular almost as a wall, 
which rendered it neither safe, or even to be attempted by any 
single man in his wits, much less by an army. Besides, a 
very few men, from the higher cliffs of the mountain, might 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE FRENCH TROOPS. 357 

have destroyed an army with the arms of nature only, by 
rolling down large stones, and pieces of the rock, upon the 
enemy passing below. 

The last and uppermost way lay through the hilly part of 
Catalonia, and led to Lerida, towards the head of the Ebro, 
the strongest place we had in all Spain, and which was as 
well furnished with a very good garrison. Along this road 
there lay many old castles and little towns in the mountains, 
naturally strong ; all which would not only have afforded 
opposition, but at the same time have entertained an enemy 
with variety of difficulties ; and especially as the earl had 
given orders, and taken care that all cattle, and everything 
necessary to sustain an army, should be conveyed into places 
of security, either in the mountains or thereabouts. These 
three ways thus precautiously secured, what had the earl to 
apprehend but the safety of the archduke ; which yet was 
through no default of his, if in any danger from the siege? 

For I well remember, on receipt of an express from the 
Duke of Savoy (as he frequently sent such to inquire after 
the proceedings in Spain), I was showed a letter, wrote about 
this time by the Earl of Peterborow to that prince, which 
raised my spirits, though then at a very low ebb. It was 
too remarkable to be forgot ; and the substance of it was, that 
his highness might depend upon it, that he, the earl, was in 
much better circumstances than he was thought to be. That 
the French officers knowing nothing of the situation of the 
country, would find themselves extremely disappointed, since, 
in case the siege was raised, their army should be obliged to 
abandon Spain ; or, in case the town was taken, they should 
find themselves shut up in that corner of Catalonia, and 
under an impossibility of forcing their way back, either 
through Arragon or Valencia : that, by this means, all Spain, 
to the Ebro, would be open to the Lord Galoway, who might 
march to Madrid, or anywhere else, without opposition. That 
he had no other uneasiness or concern upon him, but for the 
person of the archduke, whom he had nevertheless earnestly 
solicited not to remain in the town on the very first appear- 
ance of the intended siege. 



358 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 



CHAPTER VI. 

the king begins his journey to madrid, and peterborow 

to valencia sad accident at st. jago peterborow 

leaves valencia savage cruelty of the spaniards 

at campilio amours of two english officers with 

nuns — saint Vincent's procession — curious customs 
of the valencians during lent. 

Barcelona being thus relieved, and King Philip forced out 
of Spain, by these cautious steps taken by the Earl of* 
Peterborow ; before we bring him to Valencia, it will be 
necessary to intimate, that, as it always was the custom of 
that general to settle, by a council of war, all the measures 
to be taken, whenever he was obliged for the service to leave 
the archduke; a council of, war was now accordingly held, 
where all the general officers, and those in greatest employ- 
ments at court, assisted. Here everything was in the most 
solemn manner concerted and resolved upon ; here garrisons 
were settled for all the strong places, and governors appointed ; 
but the main article then agreed upon was, that King Charles 
should immediately begin his journey to Madrid, and that by 
the way of Valencia. The reason assigned for it was, because 
that kingdom being in his possession, no difficulties could 
arise which might occasion delay, if his majesty took that 
route. It was likewise agreed in the same council, that the 
Earl of Peterborow should embark all the foot not in garrisons, 
for their more speedy, as w e ^l ^s more easy conveyance to 
Valencia. The same council of war agreed, that all the horse 
in that kingdom should be drawn together; the better to 
ensure the measures to be taken for the opening and 
facilitating his majesty's progress to Madrid. 

Accordingly, after these resolutions were taken, the Earl 
of Peterborow embarks his forces, and sails for Valencia, 
where he was doubly welcomed by all sorts of people, upon 
account of his safe arrival, and the news he brought along 
with it. By the joy they expressed, one would have imagined 
that the general had escaped the same danger with the king; 
and, in truth, had their king arrived with him in person, the 



PETERBOROW WELL RECEIVED AT VALENCIA. 359 

most loyal and zealous would have found themselves at a loss 
how to have expressed their satisfaction in a more sensible 
manner. 

Soon • after his landing, with his customary vivacity, he 
applied himself to put in execution the resolutions taken in 
the councils of war at Barcelona ; and, a little to improve 
upon them, he raised an entire regiment of dragoons, bought 
them horses, provided them clothes, arms, and accoutrements ; 
and in six weeks' time had them ready to take the field ; a 
thing, though hardly to be paralleled, is yet scarce worthy to 
be mentioned among so many nobler actions of his ; yet, in 
regard to another general, it may merit notice, since, while 
he had Madrid in possession near four months, he neither 
augmented his troops, nor laid up any magazines ; neither 
sent he all that time any one express to concert any measures 
with the Earl of Peterborow; but lay under a perfect 
inactivity, or which was worse, negotiating that unfortunate 
project of carrying King Charles to Madrid by the round- 
about and ill-concerted way of Arragon ; a project not only 
contrary to the solemn resolutions of the council of war, but 
which, in reality, was the root of all our succeeding mis- 
fortunes ; and that only for the wretched vanity of appearing 
to have had some share in bringing the king to his capital ; 
but how minute a share it was, will be manifest, if it be 
considered that another general had first made the way easy, 
by driving the enemy out of Spain ; and that the French 
general only stayed at Madrid till the return of those troops 
which were, in a manner, driven out of Spain. 

And yet that transaction, doughty as it was, took up four 
most precious months, which most certainly might have been 
much better employed in rendering it impossible for the 
enemy to re-enter Spain; nor had there been any great 
difficulty in so doing; but the contrary, if the general at 
Madrid had thought convenient to have joined the troops 
under the Earl of Peterborow, and then to have marched 
directly towards Pampelona, or the frontiers of France. To 
this the Earl of Peterborow solicited the king, and those 
about him ; he advised, desired, and entreated him to lose no 
time, but to put in execution those measures resolved on at 
Barcelona. A council of war in Valencia renewed the same 
application ; but all to no purpose, his route was ordered 
him, and that to meet his majesty on the frontiers of Ar-. 



360 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

ragon. There, indeed, the earl did meet the king ; and the 
French general an army, which, by virtue of a decrepit 
intelligence, he never saw or heard of till he fled from it to 
his camp at Guadalira. Inexpressible was the confusion in 
this fatal camp ; the king from Arragon, the Earl of Peter- 
borow from Valencia, arriving in it the same day, almost the 
same hour that the Earl of Galway entered, under a hasty 
retreat before the French army. 

But to return to order, which a zeal of justice has made 
me somewhat anticipate ; the earl had not been long at 
Valencia before he gave orders to Major-general Windham, 
to march with all the forces he had, which were not above 
two thousand men, and lay siege to Requina, a town ten 
leagues distant from Valencia, and in the way to Madrid. 
The town was not very strong, nor very large ; but sure the 
oddliest fortified that ever was. The houses in a circle con- 
nectively composed the wall ; and the people, who defended 
the town, instead of firing from horn works, counterscarps, and 
bastions, fired out of the windows of their houses. 

Notwithstanding all which, General Windham found much 
greater oppositon than he at first imagined; and therefore, 
finding he should want ammunition, he sent to the Earl of 
Peterborow for a supply ; at the same time assigning, as a 
reason for it, the unexpected obstinacy of the town. So 
soon as the earl received the letter, he sent for me ; and told 
me I must repair to Requina, where they would want an 
engineer ; and that I must be ready next morning, when he 
should order a lieutenant, with thirty soldiers, and two 
matrosses, to guard some powder for that service. Accord- 
ingly, the next morning we set out, the lieutenant, who 
was a Dutchman, and commander of the convey, being of 
my acquaintance. 

We had reached St. Jago, a small village about midway 
between Valencia and Requina, when the officer, just as he 
was got without the town, resolving to take up his quarters on 
the spot, ordered the mules to be unloaded. The powder, 
which consisted of forty-five barrels; was piled up in a 
circle, and covered with oil-cloth to preserve it from the 
weather ; and though we had agreed to sup together at my 
quarters within the village, yet, being weary and fatigued, he 
ordered his field-bed to be put up near the powder, and so 
lay down to take a short nap. I had scarce been at my 



SAD ACCIDENT AT ST. JAGO. 361 

quarters an hour, when a sudden shock attacked the house so 
violently, that it threw down tiles, windows, chimneys and 
all. It presently came into my head what was the occasion ; 
and, as my fears suggested, so it proved : for running to the 
door, I saw a cloud ascending from the spot I left the powder 
pitched upon. In haste making up to which, nothing was to 
be seen but the bare circle upon which it had stood. The bed 
was blown quite away, and the poor lieutenant all to pieces, 
several of his limbs being found separate, and at a vast 
distance from each other; and particularly an arm with a 
ring on one of the fingers. The matrosses were, if possible, 
in a yet worse condition, that is, as to manglement and 
laceration. All the soldiers who were standing, and anything 
near, were struck dead. Only such as lay sleeping on the 
ground escaped ; and of those one assured me, that the blast 
removed him several feet from his place of repose. In short, 
inquiring into this deplorable disaster, I had this account : 
that a pig running out of the town, the soldiers endeavoured 
to intercept its return ; but driving it upon the matrosses, 
one of them, who was jealous of its getting back into the hands 
of the soldiers, drew his pistol to shoot it, which was the source 
of this miserable catastrophe. The lieutenant carried along 
with him a bag of dollars to pay the soldiers' quarters ; of 
which the people, and the soldiers that were saved, found 
many, but blown to an inconceivable distance. 

With those few soldiers that remained alive, I proceeded, 
according to my orders, to Requina ; where, when I arrived, 
I gave General Windham an account of the disaster at St. 
Jago. As such it troubled him, and not a little on account 
of the disappointment. However, to make the best of a bad 
market, he gave orders for the forming of a mine, under an 
old castle, which was part of the wall. As it was ordered, so 
it was begun, more in terror em, than with any expectation of 
success from it as, a mine. Nevertheless, I had scarce began 
to frame the oven of the mine, when those within the town 
desired to capitulate. This being all we could aim at, under 
the miscarriage of our powder at St. Jago (none being yet 
arrived to supply that defect), articles were readily granted 
them ; pursuant to which, that part of the garrison, which 
was composed of Castilian gentry, had liberty to go where- 
ever they thought best, and the rest were made prisoners of war. 
Requina being thus reduced to the obedience of Charles III., 



362 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CAKLETON. 

a new raised regiment of Spaniards was left in garrison, the 
colonel of which was appointed governor; and our supply 
of powder having at last got safe to us, General Windham 
marched his little army to Cuenca. 

Cuenca is a considerable city, and a bishopric ; therefore, 
to pretend to sit down before it with such a company of 
foragers, rather than an army, must be placed among the 
hardy influences of the Earl of Peterborow's auspicious 
administration. On the out part of Cuenca there stood an 
old castle, from which, upon our approach, they played upon 
us furiously : but as soon as we could bring two pieces of 
our cannon to bear, we answered their fire with so good success, 
that we soon obliged them to retire into the town. We had 
raised a battery of twelve guns against the city, on their 
rejection of the summons sent them to come under the obedience 
of King Charles ; going to which, from the old castle last 
reduced, I received a shot on the toe of one of my shoes, which 
carried that part of the shoe entirely away, without any 
farther damage. 

When I came to that battery, we plied them warmly (as 
well as from three mortars), for the space of three days, their 
nights included ; but observing, that in one particular house 
they were remarkably busy, people thronging in and out 
below, and those above firing perpetually out of the windows, 
I was resolved to have one shot at that window, and made 
those officers about me take notice of it. True it was, the 
distance would hardly allow me to hope for success ; yet as 
the experiment could only be attended with the expense of a 
single ball, I made it. So soon as the smoke of my own 
cannon would permit it, we could see clouds of dust issuing 
from out of the window, which, together with the people's 
crowding out of doors, convinced the officers, whom I had 
desired to take notice of it, that I had been no bad marksman. 

Upon this, two priests were sent out of the place with 
proposals ; but they were so triflingly extravagant, that as 
soon as ever the general heard them, he ordered their answer 
in a fresh renewal of the fire of both cannon and mortars. 
And it happeend to be with so much havoc and execution, 
that they were soon taught reason ; and sent back their 
divines with much more moderate demands. After the 
general had a little modelled these last, they were accepted ; 
and according to the articles of capitulation, the city was that 



RETREAT FROM VALENCIA. 363 

very day surrendered into our possession. The Earl of 
Duncannon's regiment took guard of all the gates ; and King 
Charles was proclaimed in due form. 

The Earl of Peterborow, during this expedition, had left 
Valencia, and was arrived at my Lord Galway's camp at 
Gaudalaxara: who, for the confederates, and King Charles 
in particular, unfortunately was ordered from Portugal, to 
take the command from a general, who had all along been 
almost miraculously successful, and by his own great actions 
paved the way for a safe passage to that of his supplanter. 

Yet, even in this fatal place, the Earl of Peterborow made 
some proposals, which had they been embraced, might, in all 
probability, have secured Madrid from falling into the hands 
of the enemy : but, in opposition thereto, the Lord Galway, 
and all his Portuguese officers, were for forcing the next day 
the enemy to battle. The almost only person against it was 
the Earl of Peterborow ; who then and there took the liberty 
to evince the impossibility of coming to an engagement. This 
the next morning too evidently made apparent, when, upon 
the first motion of our troops towards the river, which they 
pretended to pass, and must pass, before they could engage, 
they were so warmly saluted from the batteries of the enemy, 
and their small shot, that our regiments were forced to retire 
in confusion to their camp. By which rebuff, all heroical 
imaginations were at present laid aside, to consider how they 
might make their retreat to Valencia. 

The retreat being at last resolved on, and a multiplicity of 
generals rendering our bad circumstances much worse, the 
Earl of Peterborow met with a fortunate reprieve, by 
solicitations from the queen, and desires tantamount to orders, 
that he would go with the troops left in Catalonia, to the relief 
of the Duke of Savoy. It is hardly to be doubted, that that 
general was glad to withdraw from those scenes of confusion, 
which were but too visible to eyes even less discerning 
than his. However, he forbore to prepare himself to put her 
majesty's desires in execution, as they were not peremptory, 
till it had been resolved by the unanimous consent of a council 
of war, where the king, all the generals, and ministers, were 
present, that it was expedient for the service that the Earl of 
Peterborow, during the winter season, should comply with 
her majesty's desires, and go for Italy; since he might return 
before the opening of the campaign, if it should be necessary. 



364 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

And return indeed he did, before the campaign opened, and 
brought along with him 100,000Z. from Genoa, to the great 
comfort and support of our troops, which had neither money 
nor credit. But, on his return, that noble earl found the Lord 
Galway had been near as successful against him, as he had 
been unsuccessful against the enemy. Thence was the Earl 
of Peterborow recalled to make room for an unfortunate 
general, who, the next year, suffered himself to be decoyed 
into that fatal battle of Almanza. 

The Earl of Peterborow, on his leaving Valencia, had 
ordered his baggage to follow him to the camp at Guadalaxara; 
and it arrived in our little camp, so far safe in its way to the 
greater at Guadalaxara. I think it consisted of seven loaded 
waggons; and General Windham gave orders for a small 
guard to escort it ; under which they proceeded on their 
journey : but, about eight leagues from Cuenca, at a pretty 
town called Huette, a party from the Duke of Berwick's army, 
with boughs in their hats, the better to appear what they 
were not (for the bough in the hat is the badge of the English, 
as white paper is the badge of the French), came into the 
town, crying all the way, Viva Carlos Tercero, Viva ! With 
these acclamations in their mouths, they advanced up to the 
very waggons ; when attacking the guards, who had too much 
deluded themselves with appearances, they routed them, and 
immediately plundered the waggons of all that was valuable, 
and then marched off. 

The noise of this soon reached the ears of the Earl of 
Peterborow at Guadalaxara ; when leaving my Lord Galway's 
camp, pursuant to the resolutions of the council of war, with 
a party only of fourscore of Killegrew's dragoons, he met 
general Windham's little army within a league of Huette, the 
place where his baggage had been plundered. The earl had 
strong motives of suspicion, that the inhabitants had given 
intelligence to the enemy ; and, as it is very natural, giving 
way to the first dictates of resentment, he resolved to have 
laid the town in ashes ; but when he came near it, the clergy 
and magistrates, upon their knees, disavowing the charge, 
and asserting their innocence, prevailed on the good nature 
of that generous earl, without any great difficulty, to spare 
the town, at least not to burn it. 

We marched, however, into the town, and that night took 
up our quarters there ; and the magistrates, under the dread 



THE NUNNERY AT HUETTE. 365 

of our avenging ourselves, on their part took care that we 
were well supplied. But, when they were made sensible ot 
the value of the loss which the earl had sustained, and that 
on a moderate computation it amounted to at least eight 
thousand pistoles, they voluntarily presented themselves next 
morning, and, of their own accord, offered to make his lord- 
ship full satisfaction, and that, in their own phrase, de contado, 
in ready money. The earl was not displeased at their offer ; 
but generously made answer, That he was just come from 
my Lord Gal way's camp at Chincon, where he found they 
were in a likelihood of wanting bread ; and, as he imagined 
it might be easier to them to raise the value in corn, than in 
ready money ; if they would send to that value in corn, to 
the Lord Galway's camp, he would be satisfied. This they 
with joy embraced, and immediately complied with. 

I am apt to think the last century (and I very much fear 
the current will be as deficient), can hardly produce a parallel 
instance of generosity, and true public-spiritedness ; and the 
world will be of my opinion, when I have corroborated this 
with another passage some years after. The commissioners 
for stating the debts due to the army, meeting daily for that 
purpose, at their house in Darby-court in Channel-row, I 
there mentioned to Mr. Read, gentleman to his lordship, this 
very just and honourable claim upon the government, as 
monies advanced for the use of the army ; who told me, in a 
little time after, that he had mentioued it to his lordship, but 
with no other effect than to have it rejected with a generous 
disdain. 

While we stayed atHuette, there was a little incident in life, 
which gave me great diversion. The earl, who maintained 
a good correspondence with the fair sex, hearing from one of 
the priests of the place, that, on the alarm of burning the 
town, one of the finest ladies in all Spain had taken refuge in 
the nunnery, was desirous to speak with her. 

The nunnery stood upon a small rising hill within the 
town, and, to obtain the view, the earl had presently in his 
head this stratagem ; he sends for me, as engineer, to have 
my advice, how to raise a proper fortification upon that hill, 
out of the nunnery. I waited upon his lordship to the place, 
where, declaring the intent of our coming, and giving plau- 
sible reasons for it, the train took, and immediately the lady 
abbess, and the fair lady came out to make intercession, that 



366 MEMOIRS OF, CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

his lordship would be pleased to lay aside that design. The 
divine oratory of one, and the beautiful charms of the other, ■ 
prevailed ; so his lordship left the fortification to be the work 
of some future generation. 

From Huette the Earl of Peterborow marched forwards 
for Valencia, with only those fourscore dragoons, which came 
with him from Chincon, leaving General Windham pursuing 
his own orders to join his forces to the army, then under the 
command of the Lord G-alway. But stopping at Campilio, a 
little town in our way, his lordship had information of a most 
barbarous fact committed that very morning by the Spaniards, 
at a small villa, about a league distant, upon some English 
soldiers. 

A captain of the English guards (whose name has slipped 
my memory, though I well knew the man), marching in order 
to join the battalion of the guards, then under the command 
of General Windham, with some of his soldiers that had been 
in the hospital, took up his quarters in that little villa. But, 
on his marching out of it, next morning, a shot in the "back 
laid that officer dead upon the spot ; and, as it had been 
before concerted, the Spaniards of the place at the same time 
fell upon the poor weak soldiers, killing several; not even 
sparing their wives. This was but a prelude to their bar- 
barity ; their savage cruelty was only whetted, not glutted. 
They took the surviving few, hurried and dragged them up a 
hill, a little without the villa. On the top of this hill there 
was a hole, or opening, somewhat like the mouth of one of 
our coal-pits ; down this they cast several, who with hideous 
shrieks and cries, made more hideous by the echoes of the 
chasm, there lost their lives. 

This relation was thus made to the Earl of Peterborow, at 
his quarters at Campilio, who immediately gave orders for to 
sound to horse. At first we were all surprised; but were 
soon satisfied, that it was to revenge, or rather do justice on, 
this barbarous action. 

As soon as we entered the villa, we found that most of the 
inhabitants, but especially the most guilty, had withdrawn 
themselves on our approach. We found, however, many of 
the dead soldiers' clothes, which had been conveyed into the 
church, and there hid. And a strong accusation being laid 
against a person belonging to the church, and full proof made 
that he had been singularly industrious in the execution of 



PERILOUS POSITION OF A POOR SOLDIER. 367 

that horrid piece of barbarity on the hill, his lordship com- 
manded him to be hanged up at the knocker of the door. 

After this piece of military justice, we were led up to the 
fatal pit, or hole, down which many had been cast headlong. 
There we found one poor soldier alive, who, upon his throwing 
in, had catched fast hold of some impending bushes, and 
saved himself on a little jutty within the concavity. On 
hearing us talk English, he cried out; and ropes being let 
down, in a little time he was drawn up ; when he gave us an 
ample detail of the whole villany. Among other particulars, 
I remember he told me of a very narrow escape he had in 
that obscure recess. A poor woman, one of the wives of the 
soldiers, who was thrown down after him, struggled, and 
roared so much, that they could not, with all their force, 
throw her cleverly in the middle ; by which means, falling 
near the side, in her fall she almost beat him from his place 
of security. 

Upon the conclusion of this tragical relation of the soldier 
thus saved, his lordship gave immediate orders for the firing 
of the villa, which was executed with due severity; after 
which his lordship marched back to his quarters at Campilio ; 
from whence, two days after, we arrived at Valencia ; where, 
the first thing presented to that noble lord, was all the papers 
taken in the plunder of his baggage, which the Duke of 
Berwick had generously ordered to be returned him, without 
waste or opening. 

It was too manifest, after the earl's arrival at this city, 
that the alteration in the command of the English forces, 
which before was only received as a rumour, had deeper 
grounds for belief than many of his friends in that city could 
have wished. His lordship had gained the love of all by a 
thousand engaging condescensions ; even his gallantries, being 
no way prejudicial, were not offensive; and though his lord- 
ship did his utmost to conceal his chagrin, the sympathy of 
those around him made such discoveries upon him, as would 
have disappointed a double portion of his caution. They had 
seen him undated under successes, that' were so near being 
unaccountable, that, in a country of less superstition than 
Spain, they might almost have passed for miraculous ; they 
knew full well, that nothing but that series of successes had 
paved a passage for the general that was to supersede him ; 



368 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

those only having removed all the difficulties of his march 
from Portugal to Madrid ; they knew him the older general ; 
and therefore, not knowing that, in the court he came from, 
intrigue was too often the soul of merit, they could not but 
be amazed at a change, which his lordship was unwilling 
anybody should perceive by himself. 

It was upon this account, that, as formerly, he treated the 
ladies with balls, and to pursue the dons in their own humour, 
ordered a tawridore, or bull-feast. In Spain, no sort of 
public diversions are esteemed equal with this. But the bulls 
provided at Valencia, not being of the right breed, nor ever 
initiated in the mysteries, did not acquit themselves at all 
masterly; and, consequently, did not give the diversion or 
satisfaction expected. For which reason I shall omit giving 
a description of this bull-feast ; and desire my reader to sus- 
pend his curiosity till I come to some, which, in the Spanish 
sense, were much more entertaining ; that is, attended with 
much greater hazards and danger. 

But though I have said the gallantries of the general were 
mostly political, at least very inoffensive ; yet there happened 
about this time, and in this place, a piece of gallantry, that 
gave the earl a vast deal of offence and vexation ; as a matter 
that in its consequences might have been fatal to the interest 
of King Charles, if not to the English nation in general ; and 
which I the rather relate, in that it may be of use to young 
officers and others ; pointing out to them the danger, not to 
say folly, of inadvertent and precipitate engagements, under 
unruly passions. 

I have said before, that Valencia is famous for fine women. 
It indeed abounds in them ; and among those, are great 
numbers of courtezans, not inferior in beauty to any. 
Nevertheless, two of our English officers, not caring for the 
common road, however safe, resolved to launch into the 
deeper seas, though attended with much greater danger. 
Amours, the common failing of that fair city, was the occasion 
of this accident, and two nuns the objects. It is customary 
in that country for young people, in an evening, to resort to 
the grates of the nunneries, there to divert themselves, and 
the nuns, with a little pleasant and inoffensive chit-chat. For, 
though I have heard some relate a world of nauseous passages 
at such conversations, I must declare that I never saw or 



TWO NUNS ELOPE WITH TWO OFFICERS. 369 

heard anything unseemly ; and therefore, whenever I have 
heard any such from such fabulists, I never so much wronged 
my judgment as to afford them credit. 

Our two officers were very assiduous at the grates of a 
nunnery in this place ; and having there pitched upon two 
nuns, prosecuted their amours with such vigour, that, in a 
little time, they had made a very great progress in their 
affections, without in the least considering the dangers that 
must attend themselves and the fair ; they had exchanged 
vows, and prevailed upon the weaker vessels to endeavour to 
get out to their lovers. To effect which, soon after, a plot 
was laid ; the means, the hour, and everything agreed upon. 

It is the custom of that nunnery, as of many others, for 
the nuns to take their weekly courses in keeping the keys of 
all the doors. The two love-sick ladies giving notice to their 
lovers at the grate, that one of their turns was come, the 
night and hour was appointed, which the officers punctually 
observing, carried off their prey without either difficulty or 
interruption. 

But next morning when the nuns were missing, what an 
uproar was there over all the city ! The ladies were both of 
quality ; and therefore the tidings were first carried to their 
relations. They received the news with vows of utmost 
vengeance ; and, as is usual in that country, put themselves 
in arms for that purpose. There needed no great canvassing 
for discovering who were the aggressors ; the officers had been 
too frequent, and too public in their addresses, to leave any 
room for question. Accordingly, they were complained of 
and sought for; but sensible at last of their past temerity, they 
endeavoured, and with a great deal of difficulty, perfected their 
escape. 

Less fortunate were the two fair nuns ; their lovers, in their 
utmost exigency, had forsaken them; and they, poor creatures, 
knew not where to fly. Under this sad dilemma they were 
taken; and, as in like offences, condemned directly to the 
punishment of immuring. And what greater punishment is 
there on earth, than to be confined between four narrow 
walls, only open at the top ; and thence to be half supported 
with bread and water, till the offenders gradually starve to 
death? 

The Earl of Peterborow, though highly exasperated at the 
proceedings of his officers, in compassion to the unhappy fair, 

VOL. II. B B 



870 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

resolved to interpose by all the moderate means possible. 
He knew very well, that no one thing could so much preju- 
dice the Spaniard against him, as the countenancing such an 
action: wherefore, he inveighed against the officers, at the 
same time that he endeavoured to mitigate in favour of the 
ladies : but all was in vain ; it was urged against those chari- 
table intercessions, that they had broke their , vows ; and, in 
that, had broke in upon the laws of the nunnery and religion; 
the consequence of all which could be nothing less than the 
punishment appointed to be inflicted. And, which was the 
hardest of all, the nearest of their relations most opposed all 
his generous mediations; and those, who according to the 
common course of nature, should have thanked him for his 
endeavours to be instrumental in rescuing them from the im- 
pending danger, grew more and more enraged, because he 
opposed them in their design of a cruel revenge. 

Notwithstanding all which the earl persevered ; and after 
a deal of labour, first got the penalty suspended ; and, soon 
after, by the dint of a very considerable sum of money (a 
most powerful argument which prevails in every country), 
saved the poor nuns from immuring; and at last, though with 
great reluctance, he got them received again into the nunnery. 
As to the warlike lovers, one of them was the year after 
slain at the battle of Almanza ; the other is yet 'living, being 
a brigadier in the army. 

While the Earl of Peterborow was here with his little army 
of great heretics, neither priests nor people were so open in 
their superstitious fopperies, as I at other times found them. 
For which reason I will make bold, and by an antichronism 
in this place, a little anticipate some observations that I made 
some time after the earl left it. And as I have not often 
committed such a transgression, I hope it may be the more 
excusable now, and no way blemish my Memoirs, that I break 
in upon the series of my journal. 

Valencia is a handsome city, and a bishopric ; and is con- 
siderable, not only for the pleasantness of its situation and 
beautiful ladies, but (which at some certain times, and on 
some occasions, to them is more valuable than both those put 
together) for being the birth-place of St. Vincent, the patron 
of the place ; and next, for its being the place where Santo 
Domingo, the first institutor of the Dominican order, had his 
education. Here, in honour of the last, is a spacious and 



CONVENT OF THE DOMINICANS. 371 

very splendid convent of the Dominicans. Walking by 
which, I one day observed over the gate, a figure ot a man 
in stone; and near it, a dog with alighted torch in his mouth. 
The image I rightly enough took to intend that of the saint ; 
but enquiring of one of the order at the gate the meaning of 
the figures near it, he very courteously asked me to walk in, 
and then entertained me with the following relation : — 

When the mother of Santo Domingo, said that religious, 
was with child of that future saint, she had a dream which 
very much afflicted her. She dreamt that she heard a dog 
bark in her belly ; and inquiring (at what oracle is not said) 
the meaning of her dream, she was told, That that child 
should bark out the Gospel (excuse the bareness of the 
expression, it may run better in Spanish; though, if I 
remember right, Erasmus gives it in Latin much the same 
turn), which should thence shine out like that lighted torch. 
And this is the reason, that wherever you see the image of 
that saint, a dog and a lighted torch is in the group. 

He told me at the same time, that there had been more 
popes and cardinals of that order than of any, if not all the 
other. To confirm which, he led me into a large gallery, on 
each side whereof he showed me the pictures of all the popes 
and cardinals that had been of that order ; among which, I 
particularly took notice of that of Cardinal Howard, great 
uncle to the present Duke of Norfolk. But after many 
encomiums of their society, with which he interspersed his 
discourse, he added one that I least valued it for, that the 
sole care and conduct of the inquisition was intrusted with 
them. 

Finding me attentive, or not so contradictory as the 
English humour generally is, he next brought me into a fair 
and large cloister, round which I took several turns with him ; 
and, indeed, the place was too delicious to tire, under, a 
conversation less pertinent or courteous than that he 
entertained me with. In the middle of the cloister, was 
a small, but pretty and sweet grove of orange and lemon 
trees ; these bore fruit ripe and green, and flowers, altogether 
on one tree ; and their fruit was so very large and beautiful, 
and their flowers so transcendently odoriferous, that all I had 
ever seen of the like kind in England, could comparatively 
pass only for beauty in epitome, or nature imitated in wax- 

b b 2 



372 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

work. Many flocks also of pretty little birds, with their 
cheerful notes, added not a little to my delight. In short, in 
life, I never knew or found three of my senses at once so 
exquisitely gratified. 

Not far from this, Saint Vincent, the patron, as I said 
before, of this city, has a chapel dedicated to him. Once a 
year they do him honour in a sumptuous procession. Then 
are their streets all strewed with flowers, and their houses set 
off with their richest tapestries ; every one strives to excel his 
neighbour in distinguishing himself by the honour he pays to 
that saint ; and he is the best catholic, as well as the best 
citizen, in the eye of the religious, who most exerts himself 
on this occasion. 

The procession begins with a cavalcade of all the friars of 
all the convents in and about the city. These walk two and 
two with folded arms, and eyes cast down to the very ground, 
and with the greatest outward appearance of humility imagin- 
able ; nor, though the temptation from the fine women that 
filled their windows, or the rich tapestries that adorned the 
balconies, might be allowed sufficient to attract, could 
I observe that any one of them all ever moved them 
upwards. 

After the friars is borne, upon the shoulders of twenty 
men at least, an image of that saint, of solid silver, large as 
the life : it is placed in a great chair, of silver likewise ; the 
staves that bear him up, and upon which they bear him, 
being of the same metal. The whole is a most costly and 
curious piece of workmanship, such as my eyes never before 
or since beheld. 

The magistrates follow the image and its supporters, 
dressed in their richest apparel, which is always on this day, 
and on this occasion, particularly sumptuous and distinguish- 
ing. Thus is the image, in the greatest splendour, borne 
and accompanied round that fine city ; and at last conveyed to 
the place from whence it came ; and so concludes that 
annual ceremony. 

The Valencians, as to the exteriors of religion, are the most 
devout of any in Spain, though in common life you find them 
amorous, gallant, and gay, like other people, yet, on solemn 
occasions, there shines outright such a spirit, as proves them 
the very bigots of bigotry ; as a proof of which assertion, I 



CUSTOMS OF THE VALENCIANS. 373 

will now give some account of such observations as I had 
time to make upon them, during two Lent seasons while I 
resided there. 

The week before the Lent commences, commonly known 
by the name of Carnival Time, the whole city appears a 
perfect Bartholomew fair ; the streets are crowded, and the 
houses empty ; nor is it possible to pass along without some 
gambol or jack-pudding trick offered to you. Ink, water, 
and sometimes ordure, are sure to be hurled at your face or 
clothes ; and if you appear concerned or angry, they rejoice at 
it, pleased the more, the more they displease ; for all other 
resentment is at that time out of season, though at other 
times few in the world are fuller of resentment, or more 
captious. 

The younger gentry, or dons, to express their gallantry, 
carry about them egg-shells, filled with orange or other 
sweet water, which they cast at ladies in their coaches, or such 
other of the fair sex as they happen to meet in the streets. 

But, after all, if you would think them extravagant to-day, 
as much transgressing the rules of common civility, and 
neither regarding decency to one another, nor the duty they 
owe to Almighty God ; yet when Ash-Wednesday comes, 
you will imagine them more unaccountable in their conduct, 
being then as much too excessive in all outward indications 
of humility and repentance. Here you shall meet one bare- 
footed, with a cross on his shoulder, a burthen rather fit for 
somewhat with four feet, and which his poor two are ready 
to sink under, yet the vain wretch bears and sweats, and 
sweats and bears, in hope of finding merit in an ass's 
labour. 

Others you shall see naked to their waists, whipping 
themselves with scourges made for the purpose, till the blood 
follows every stroke ; and no man need be at a loss to follow 
them by the very tracks of gore they shed in this frantic per- 
ambulation. Some who, from the thickness of their hides, or 
other impediments, have not power by their scourgings to 
fetch blood of themselves, are followed by surgeons with their 
lancets, who, at every turn, make use of them, to evince the 
extent of their patience and zeal by the smart of their folly. 
While others, mingling amour with devotion, take particular 
care to present themselves all macerated betore the windows 



374 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

of their mistresses ; and even in that condition, not satisfied 
with what they have barbarously done to themselves, they 
have their operators at hand, to evince their love by the 
number of their gashes and wounds; imagining the more 
blood they lose, the more love they show, and the more they 
shall gain. These are generally devotees of quality ; though 
the tenet is universal, that he that is most bloody is most 
devout. 

After these street exercises, these ostentatious castigations, 
are over, these self-sacrificers repair to the great church, the 
bloodier the better ; there they throw themselves, in a 
condition too vile for the eye of a female, before the image 
of the Virgin Mary ; though I defy all their race of Fathers, 
and their infallible Holy Father into the bargain, to produce 
any authority to fit it for belief, that she ever delighted in 
such sanguinary holocausts. 

During the whole time of Lent, you will see in every 
street some priest or friar, upon some stall or stool, preaching 
up repentance to the people ; and with violent blow on his 
breast, crying aloud, Mia culpa, mia maxima culpa, till he 
extract reciprocal returns from the hands of his auditors on 
their own breasts. 

When Good-Friday is come, they entertain it with the 
most profound show of reverence and religion, both in their 
streets and in their churches. In the last, particularly, they 
have contrived about twelve o'clock suddenly to darken them, 
so as to render them quite gloomy. This they do, to intimate 
the eclipse of the sun, which at that time happened. And 
to signify the rending of the vail of the temple, you are 
struck with a strange artificial noise at the very same instant. 

But when Easter-day appears, you find it in all respects 
with them a day of rejoicing ; for though abstinence from 
flesh with them, who at no time eat much, is not so great a 
mortification as with those of the same persuasion in other 
countries, who eat much more, yet there is a visible satisfaction 
darts out at their eyes, which demonstrates their inward 
pleasure in being set free from the confinement of mind to 
the dissatisfaction of the body. Every person you now meet 
greets you with a Resurrexit Jesus ; a good imitation of the 
primitive Christians, were it the real effect of devotion. 
And all sorts of the best music (which here indeed is the 



SIEGE OF ALIO ANT. 875 

best in all Spain), proclaim an auspicious valediction to the 
departed season of superficial sorrow and stupid superstition. 
But enough of this : I proceed to weightier matters. 



CHAPTER VH. 

ALICANT BESIEGED BY GENERAL GORGE — REMARKABLE FEAT 

OF A SCOTCH DRAGOON MESSENGER TO ALICANT LETTER 

FROM THE KING OF SPAIN TO THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND 

THE SIEGE OF CARTHAGENA SIGNAL DEFEAT OF THE 

ENGLISH BEFORE VILLENA COMIC APPEARANCE OF MAJOR 

BOYD ON HIS JOURNEY TO VENISSA INTERESTING ACCOUNT 

OF HERMIT'S CELLS AT MONTSERAT. 

While we lay at Valencia, under the vigilance and care of 
the indefatigable earl, news was brought, that Alicant was 
besieged by General Gorge by land, while a squadron of men- 
of-war battered it from the sea ; from both which the besiegers 
played their parts so well, and so warmly plied them with 
their cannon, that an indifferent practicable breach was made 
in a little time. 

Mahoni commanded in the place, being again received into 
favour ; and cleared as he was of those political insinuations 
before intimated, he now seemed resolved to confirm his in- 
nocence by a resolute defence. However, perceiving that all 
preparations tended towards a storm, and knowing full well 
the weakness of the town, he withdrew his garrison into the 
castle, leaving the town to the defence of its own in- 
habitants. 

Just as that was doing, the sailors, not much skilled in 
sieges, nor at all times capable of the coolest consideration, 
with a resolution natural to them, stormed the walls to the side 
of the sea; where, not meeting with much opposition (for the 
people of the town apprehended the least danger there), they 
soon got into the place ; and, as soon as got in, began to 
plunder. This obliged the people, for the better security of 
themselves to open their gates, and seek a refuge under one 
enemy in opposition to the rage of another. 

General Gorge, as soon as he entered the town, with a 



376 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

good deal of seeming lenity, put a stop to the ravages of the 
sailors ; and ordered proclamation to be made throughout the 
place, that all the inhabitants should immediately bring in 
their best effects into the great church for their better 
security. This was by the mistaken populace as readily 
complied with ; and neither friend nor foe at all disputing 
the command, or questioning the integrity of the intention, 
the church was presently crowded with riches of all sorts and 
sizes. Yet, after some time remaining there, they were all 
taken out, and disposed of by those that had as little property 
in them as the sailors they were pretended to be preserved 
from 

The Earl of Peterborow, upon the very first news of the 
siege, had left Valencia, and taken shipping for Alicant, 
where he arrived soon after the surrender of the town, and 
that outcry of the goods of the townsmen. Upon his arrival, 
Mahoni, who was blocked up in the castle, and had expe- 
rienced his indefatigable diligence, being in want of provisions, 
and without much hope of relief, desired to capitulate. The 
earl granted him honourable conditions, upon which he de- 
livered up the castle, and Gorge was made governor. 

Upon his lordship's taking ship at Valencia, I had an op- 
portunity of marching with those dragoons which escorted 
him from Castile, who had received orders to march into 
Murcia. We quartered the first night at Alcira, a town that 
the river Segra almost surrounds, which renders it capable 
of being made a place of vast strength, though now of small 
importance. 

The next night we lay at Xativa, a place famous for its 
steadiness to King Charles. General Basset, a Spaniard, 
being governor, it was besieged by the forces of King Philip ; 
but, after a noble resistance, the enemy were beat off, and the 
siege raised; for which effort, it is supposed, that on the 
retirement of King Charles out of this country, it was de- 
prived of its old name Xativa, and is now called San Felippo ; 
though to this day, the people thereabout much disallow by 
their practice, that novel denomination. 

We marched next morning by Monteza ; which gives name 
to the famous title of knights of Monteza. It was, at the 
time that Colonel O'Guaza, an Irishman, was governor, be- 
sieged by the people of the country, in favour of King 
Charles; but very ineffectually, so it never changed its 



COURAGE OF CAPTAIN MATTHEWS. 377 

sovereign. That night we quartered at Fonte de las Figuras, 
within one league of Almanza, where that fatal and unfor- 
tunate battle, which I shall give an account of in its place, 
was fought the year after, under the Lord Galway. 

On our fourth day's march we were obliged to pass Villena, 
where the enemy had a garrison. A party of Mahoni's 
dragoons made a part of that garrison, and they were com- 
manded by Major O'Roirk, an Irish officer, who always 
carried the reputation of a good soldier, and a brave gentle- 
man. 

I had all along made it my observation, that Captain 
Matthews, who commanded those dragoons that I marched 
with, was a person of much more courage than conduct ; and 
he used as little precaution here, though just marching under 
the eye of the enemy, as he had done at other times. , As I was 
become intimately acquainted with him, I rode up to him, and 
told him the danger, which, in my opinion, attended our 
present march. I pointed out to him just before Villena, a 
jutting hill, under which we must unavoidably pass ; at the 
turning whereof, I was apprehensive the enemy might lie, 
and either by ambuscade, or otherwise, surprise us ; I there- 
fore entreated we might either wait the coming of our rear- 
guard, or at least march with a little more leisure and caution. 
But he, taking little notice of all I said, kept on his round 
march ; seeing which, I pressed forward my mule, which was 
a very good one, and rid as fast as her legs could carry her, 
till I had got on the top of the hill. When I came there, I 
found both my expectation and my apprehensions answered : 
for I could very plainly discern three squadrons of the enemy 
ready drawn up, and waiting for us at the very winding of 
the hill. 

Hereupon I hastened back to the captain with the like 
speed, and told him the discovery I had made ; who never- 
theless kept on his march, and it was with a good deal of 
difficulty that I at last prevailed on him to halt, till our rear- 
guard of twenty men had got up to us. But those joining us, 
and a new troop of Spanish dragoons, who had marched to- 
wards us that morning, appearing in sight ; our captain, as 
if he was afraid of their rivalling him in his glory, at the very 
turn of the hill, rode in a full gallop, with sword in hand, up 
to the enemy. They stood their ground till we were ad- 



378 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

vanced within two hundred yards of them, and then in con- 
fusion endeavoured to retire into the town. 

They were obliged to, pass over a small bridge, too small to 
admit of such a company in so much haste ; their crowding 
upon which obstructed their retreat, and left all that could 
not get over to the mercy of our swords, which spared none. 
However, narrow as the bridge was, Captain Matthews was 
resolved to venture over after the enemy ; on doing which, 
the enemy made a halt, till the people of the town, and the 
very priests, came out to their relief with fire-arms. On so 
large an appearance, Captain Matthews thought it not ad- 
visable to make any farther advances ; so, driving a very 
great flock of sheep from under the walls, he continued his 
march towards Elda. In this action we lost Captain Top- 
ham and three dragoons. 

I remember we were not marched very far from the place 
where this rencounter happened, when an Irish dragoon over- 
took the captain, with a civil message from Major O'Roirk, 
desiring that he would not entertain a mean opinion of him 
for the defence that was made ; since, could he have got the 
Spaniards to have stood their ground, he should have given 
him good reason for a better. The captain returned a com- 
plimental answer, and so marched on. This Major O'Roirk, 
or O'Roork, was the next year killed at Alkay, being much 
lamented; for he was esteemed both for his courage and 
conduct, one of the best of the Irish officers in the Spanish 
service. I was likewise informed, that he was descended 
from one of the ancient Kings of Ireland : the mother of the 
honourable Colonel Paget, one of the grooms of the bed- 
chamber to his present majesty, was nearly related to this 
gallant gentleman. 

One remarkable thing I saw in that action, which affected 
and surprised me ; a Scotch dragoon, of but a moderate size, 
with his large basket-hilted sword, struck off a Spaniard's 
head at one stroke, with the same ease, in appearance, as a 
man would do that of a poppy. 

When we came to Elda (a town much in the interest ot 
King Charles, and famous for its fine situation, and the 
largest grapes in Spain), the inhabitants received us in a 
manner as handsome as it was peculiar; all standing at their 
doors with lighted torches, which, considering the time 



APPOINTED SOLE ENGINEER AT ALIO ANT. 379 

we entered, was far from an unwelcome or disagreeable 
sight. 

The next day, several requested to be the messengers of 
the action at Villena to the Earl of Peterborow at Alicant ; 
but the captain returned this answer to all, that, in consi- 
deration of the share that I might justly claim in that day's 
transaction, he could not think of letting any other person be 
the bearer. So, giving me his letters to the earl, I the next 
day delivered them to him at Alicant. At the delivery, 
Colonel Killegrew (whose dragoons they were) being present 
he expressed a deal of satisfaction at the account, and his 
Lordship was pleased at the same time to appoint me sole en- 
gineer of the castle of Alicant. 

Soon after which, that successful general embarked for 
Genoa, according to the resolutions of the council of war at 
Guadalaxara, on a particular commission from the Queen of 
England, another from Charles, King of Spain, and charged 
at the same time with a request of the Marquis das Minas, 
General of the Portuguese forces, to negotiate bills for 
100,000^. for the use of his troops. In all which, though he 
was, as ever, successful, yet may it be said, without a figure, 
that his departure, in a good measure, determined the success 
ot the confederate forces in that kingdom. True it is, the 
general returned again with the fortunate fruits of those ne- 
gotiations ; but never to act in his old auspicious sphere ; and 
therefore, as I am now to take leave of this fortunate general, 
let me do it with iustice, in an appeal to the world, of the 
not to be paralleled usage (in these latter ages at least) that 
he met with for all his services ; such a vast variety of enter- 
prises, all successiul, and which had set all Europe in amaze; 
services that had given occasion to such solemn and public 
thanksgivings in our churches, and which had received such 
very remarkable approbations, both of sovereign and parlia- 
ment, and which had been represented in so lively a manner, 
in a letter wrote by the King of Spain, under his own hand, 
to the Queen of England, and communicated to both houses 
in the terms following : — 

" Madam, my Sister, 
" I should not have been so long ere I did myself the 
honour to repeat the assurances of my sincere respects to 
you, had I not waited for the good occasion which I now 



380 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAELETON. 

acquaint you with, that the city of Barcelona is surrendered 
to me by capitulation. I doubt not but you will receive 
this great news with entire satisfaction, as well because this 
. happy success is the effect of your arms, always glorious, as 
from the pure motives of that bounty and maternal affection 
you have for me, and for everything which may contribute to 
the advancement of my interest. 

" I must do this justice to all the officers and common 
soldiers, and particularly to my Lord Peterborow, that he 
has shown in this whole expedition, a constancy, bravery, 
and conduct, worthy of the choice that your majesty has made 
of him, and that he could no ways give me better satisfaction 
than he has, by the great zeal and application which he has 
equally testified for my interest, and for the service of my 
person. I owe the same justice to Brigadier Stanhope, for 
his great zeal, vigilance, and very wise conduct, which he 
has given proofs of upon all occasions : as also to all your 
officers of the fleet, particularly to your worthy admiral, 
Shovel, assuring your majesty, that he has assisted me in 
this expedition, with an inconceivable readiness and applica- 
tion, and that no admiral will be ever better able to render 
me greater satisfaction than he has done. During the siege 
of Barcelona, some of your majesty's ships, with the assistance 
of the troops of the country, have reduced the town of Tarra- 
gona, and the officers are made prisoners of war. The town 
of G-irone has been taken at the same time by surprise, by 
the troops of the country. The town of Lerida has sub- 
mitted, as also that of Tortosa upon the Ebro ; so that we 
have taken all the places of Catalonia, except Roses. Some 
places" in Arragon, near Sarragosa, have declared for me, 
and the garrison of the castle of Denia in Valencia have 
maintained their post, and repulsed the enemy; four hundred 
of the enemy's cavalry have entered into our service, and a 
great number of their infantry have deserted. 

" This, madam, is the state that your arms, and the inclina- 
tion of the people, have put my affairs in. It is unnecessary 
to tell you what stops the course of these conquests ; it is not 
the season of the year, nor the enemy ; these are no obstacles 
to your troops, who desire nothing more than to act under 
the conduct that your majesty has appointed them. The 
taking of Barcelona, with so small a number of troops, is very 
remarkable ; and what has been done in this siege is almost 



LETTER TO THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 381 

without example ; that with seven or eight thousand men of 
your troops, and two hundred Miquelets, we should surround 
and invest a place that thirty thousand French could not 
block up. 

"After a march of thirteen hours, the troops climbed up 
the rocks and precipices, to attack a fortification stronger 
than the place, which the Earl of Peterborow has sent you a 
plan of; two generals, with the grenadiers, attacked it sword 
in hand. In which action the Prince of Hesse died glori- 
ously, after so many brave actions ; I hope his brother and 
his family will always have your majesty's protection. With 
eight hundred men they forced the covered way, and all the 
intrenchments and works, one after another, till they came to 
the last work which surrounded it, against five hundred men 
of regular troops which defended the place, and a reinforce- 
ment they had received ; and three days afterwards we be- 
came masters of the place. We afterwards attacked the 
town on the side of the castle. We landed again our cannon, 
and the other artillery, with inconceivable trouble, and formed 
two camps, distant from each other three leagues, against a 
garrison almost as numerous as our army, whose cavalry was 
double the strength of* ours. The first camp was so well in- 
trenched, that it was defended by two thousand men and the 
dragoons ; whilst we attacked the town with the rest of* our 
troops. The breach being made, we prepared to make a 
general assault with all the army. These are circumstances, 
madam, which distinguish this action, perhaps, from all 
others. 

" Here has happened an unforeseen accident. The cruelty 
of the pretended viceroy, and the report spread abroad, that 
he would take away the prisoners, contrary to the capitulation, 
provoked the burghers, and some of the country people, to 
take up arms against the garrison, whilst they were busy 
in packing up their baggage, which was to be sent away the 
next day ; so that everything tended to slaughter ; but your 
majesty's troops, entering into town with the Earl of Peter- 
borow, instead of seeking pillage, a practice common upon 
such occasions, appeased the tumult, and have saved the town, 
and even the lives of their enemies, with a discipline and 
generosity without example. 

"What remains is, that I return you my most hearty 
thanks for sending so great a fleet, and such good and valiant 



382 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

troops to my assistance. After so happy a beginning, I have 
thought it proper, according to the sentiments of your generals 
and admirals, to support, by my presence, the conquests 
that we have made ; and to show my subjects, so affectionate 
to my person, that I cannot abandon them. I receive such 
succours from your majesty, and from your generous nation, 
that I am loaded with your bounties ; and am not a little 
concerned to think, that the support of my interest should 
cause so great an expense. But, madam, I sacrifice my person, 
and my subjects in Catalonia expose also their lives and 
fortunes, upon the assurances they have of your majesty's 
generous protection. Your majesty and your council knows 
better than we do what is necessary for our conservation. 
We shall then expect your majesty's succours with an entire 
confidence in your bounty and wisdom. A farther force is 
necessary ; we give no small diversion to France, and without 
doubt they will make their utmost efforts against me as soon 
as possible ; but I am satisfied, that the same efforts will be 
made by my allies to defend me. Your goodness, madam, 
inclines you, and your power enables you, to support those 
that the tyranny of France would oppress. All that I can 
insinuate to your wisdom, and that of your allies, is, that the 
forces employed in this country will not be unprofitable to 
the public good, but will be under an obligation and necessity 
to act with the utmost vigour against the enemy. I am, with 
an inviolable affection, respect, and most sincere acknowledge- 
ment. 

Madam, my Sister, 

Your most affectionate Brother, 

Charles." 
From the Camp at Senia, before Barcelona, 
the 22nd of October, 1705. 

And yet, after all, was this noble general not only recalled, 
the command of the fleet taken from him, and that of the 
army given to my Lord G-alway, without assignment of cause ; 
but all manner of falsities were industriously spread abroad, 
not only to diminish, if they could, his reputation, but to bring 
him under accusations of a malevolent nature. I can hardly 
imagine it necessary here to take notice, that afterward he 
disproved all those idle calumnies and ill-invented rumours ; 
or to mention what compliments he received, in the most 



CALUMNIES AGAINST LORD PETERBOROW. 383 

solemn manner, from his country, upon a full examination and 
thorough canvassing of his actions in the house of lords. But 
this is too notorious to be omitted, that all officers coming 
from Spain were purposely intercepted in their way to London, 
and craftily examined upon all the idle stories which had passed, 
tending to lessen his character ; and when any officers had 
asserted the falsity of those inventions (as they all did, except 
a military sweetener or two), and that there was no possibility 
of laying anything amiss to the charge of that general, they 
were told that they ought to be careful, however, not to speak 
advantageously of that lord's conduct, unless they were 
willing to fall martyrs in his cause ; a thing scarce to be 
credited even in a popish country. But Scipio was accused, 
though as my author finely observes, by wretches only known 
to posterity by that stupid accusation. 

As a mournful valediction, before I enter upon any new 
scene, the reader will pardon this melancholy expostulation. 
How mortifying must it be to an Englishman, after he has 
found himself solaced with a relation of so many surprising 
successes of her majesty's arms, under the Earl of Peterborow ; 
successes, that have laid before our eyes provinces and 
kingdoms reduced, and towns and fortresses taken and 
relieved ; where we have seen a continued series of happy 
events, the fruits of conduct and vigilance ; and caution and 
foresight preventing dangers that were held, at first view, 
certain and insurmountable ; to change this glorious landscape, 
I say, for scenes every way different, even while our troops 
were as numerous as the enemy, and better provided, yet 
always baffled and beaten, and flying before the enemy, till 
fatally ruined in the battle of Almanza : how mortifying must 
this be to any lover of his country ! But I proceed to my 
Memoirs. 

Alicant is a town of the greatest trade of any in the 
kingdom of Valencia, having a strong castle, being situated 
on a high hill, which commands both town and harbour. In 
this place I resided a whole year ; but it was soon after my 
first arrival, that Major Collier (who was shot in the back 
at Barcelona, as I have related in the siege of that place), 
hearing of me, sought me out at my quarters ; and, after a 
particular inquiry into the success of that difficult task that 
he left me upon, and my answering all his questions to 



<584 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETOW. 

satisfaction (all which he received with evident pleasure), he 
threw down a purse of pistoles upon the table ; which I 
refusing, he told me, in a most handsome manner, his friend- 
ship was not to be preserved but by my accepting it. 

After I had made some very necessary repairs, I pursued 
the orders I had received from the Earl of Peterborow, to go 
upon the erecting a new battery between the castle and the 
town. This was a task attended with difficulties, neither few 
in number, nor small in consequence ; for it was to be raised 
upon a great declivity, which must render the work both 
laborious and precarious. However, I had the good fortune 
to effect it much sooner than was expected ; and it was called 
Gorge's battery, from the name of the governor then 
commanding; who, outof an uncommon profusion of generosity, 
wetted that piece of gossipping with a distinguishing bowl of 
punch. Brigadier Bougard, when he saw this work some 
time after, was pleased to honour it with a singular admiration 
and approbation, for its completeness, notwithstanding its 
difficulties. 

This work, and the siege of Carthagena, then in our 
possession, by the Duke of Berwick, brought the Lord Galway 
down to this place. Carthagena is of so little distance from 
Alicant, that we could easily hear the cannon playing against, 
and from it, in our castle, where I then was. And 1 re- 
member my Lord Galway, on the fourth day of the siege, 
sending to know if I could make any useful observations as 
to the success of it ; I returned, that I was of opiuion the 
town was surrendered, from the sudden cessation (.f the cannon, 
which, by our news next day from the place proved to b« 
fact. Carthagena is a small sea-port town in Murcia ; buv 
has so good an harbour, that when the famous adm:'ral 
Doria was asked, which were the three best havens in 
the Mediterranean, he readily returned, June, July, and 
Carthagena. 

Upon the surrender of this place, a detachment of foot was 
sent by the governor, with some dragoons, to Elsha ; but it 
being a place of very little strength, they were soon made 
prisoners of war. 

The siege of Carthagena being over, the Lord Galway 
returned to his camp ; and the Lord Duncannon dying in 
Alicant, the first guns that we're fired from Gorge's batterv, 



bateman's regiment lost through carelessness. 385 

were the minute-guns for his funeral. His regiment had 
been given to the Lord Montandre, who lost it before he had 
possession, by an action as odd as it was scandalous. 

That regiment had received orders to march to the Lord 
Galway's camp, under the command of their Lieutenant- 
colonel Bateman, a person before reputed a good officer, 
though his conduct here gave people, not invidious, too much 
reason to call it in question. On his march, he was so very 
careless and negligent (though he knew himself in a country 
surrounded with enemies, and that he was to march through 
a wood, where they every day made their appearance in 
great numbers), that his soldiers marched with their muskets 
slung at their backs, and went one after another (as necessity 
had forced us to do in Scotland), himself at the head ot 
them, in his chaise, riding a considerable way before. 

It happened there was a captain, with threescore dragoons, 
detached from the Duke of Berwick's army, with a design 
to intercept some cash that was ordered to be sent to Lord 
Galway's army from Alicant. This detatchment, missing of 
that intended prize, was returning very disconsolately, re 
infecta; when their captain, observing that careless and 
disorderly march of the English, resolved, boldly enough, to 
attack them in the wood. To that purpose he secreted his 
little party behind a great barn ; and so soon as they were 
half passed by, he falls upon them in the centre with his 
dragoons, cutting and slashing at such a violent rate, that he 
soon dispersed the whole regiment, leaving many dead and 
wounded upon the spot. The three colours were taken ; and 
the gallant lieutenant- colonel taken out of his chaise, and 
carried away prisoner with many others ; only one officer, 
who was an ensign, and so bold as to do his duty, was 
killed. 

The lieutenant, who commanded the grenadiers, received 
the alarm time enough to draw his men into a house in their 
way ; where he bravely defended himself for a long time ; 
but, being killed, the rest immediately surrendered. The 
account of this action I had from the commander of the 
enemy's party himself, some time after, while I was a prisoner 
And Captain Mahoni, who was present when the news was 
brought, that a few Spanish dragoons had defeated an English 
regiment, which was this under Bateman, protested to me, 
that the Duke of Berwick turned pale at the relation ; and 

vol. II. c c 



386 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAKLETON. 

when they offered to bring the colours before him, he would 
not so much as see them. A little before the duke went to 
supper, Bateman himself was brought to him ; but the duke 
turned away from him without any farther notice, than coldly 
saying, that he thought he was very strangely taken. The 
wags of the army made a thorough jest of him, and said his 
military conduct was of a piece with his economy, having, two 
days before his march, sent his young handsome wife into 
England, under the guardianship of the young chaplain of the 
regiment. 

April 15th, in the year 1707, being Easter Monday, we 
had in the morning a flying report in Alicant, that there had 
been the day before a battle at Almanza, between the army 
under the command of the Duke of Berwick, and that of the 
English under Lord Galway, in which the latter had suffered 
an entire defeat. We at first gave no great credit to it ; but 
alas ! we were too soon wofully convinced of the truth of it, 
by numbers that came flying to us from the conquering enemy. 
Then, indeed, we were satisfied of truths, too difficult before 
to be credited. But, as I was not present in that calamitous 
battle, I shall relate it, as I received it from an officer then 
in the duke's army. 

To bring the Lord Galway to a battle, in a place most 
commodious for his purpose, the duke made use of this 
stratagem ; he ordered two Irishmen, both officers, to make 
their way over to the enemy as deserters ; putting this story 
in their mouths, that the Duke of Orleans was in full march 
to join the Duke of Berwick with twelve thousand men; that 
this would be done in two days, and that then they would 
find out the Lord Galway, and force him to fight, wherever 
they found him. 

Lord Galway, who at this time lay before Yillena, receiving 
this intelligence from those well-instructed deserters, imme- 
diately raised the siege ; with a resolution, by a hasty march, 
to force the enemy to battle, before the Duke of Orleans 
should be able to join the Duke of Berwick. To effect this, 
after a hard march of three long Spanish leagues in the heat 
of the day, he appears a little after noon in the face of the 
enemy with his fatigued forces. Glad and rejoiced at the 
sight, for he found his plot had taken, Berwick, the better to 
receive him, draws up his army in a half moon, placing at a 
pretty good advance three regiments to make up the centre, 



-\ h 



LORD GAL WAY'S ARMY ENTRAPPED. 387 

with express order, nevertheless, to retreat at the very first 
charge. All which was punctually observed, and had its 
desired effect: for the three regiments, at the first attack, 
gave way, and seemingly fled towards their camp ; the English, 
after their customary manner, pursuing them with shouts and 
hollowings. As soon as the Duke of Berwick perceived his 
trap had taken, he ordered his right and left wings to close ; 
by which means, he at once cut off from the rest of their 
army all those who had so eagerly pursued the imaginary 
runaways. In short, the rout was total, and the most fatal 
blow that ever the English received during the whole war 
with Spain. Nor, as it is thought, with a great probability 
of reason, had those troops that made their retreat to the top 
of the hills, under Major-general Shrimpton, met with any 
better fate than those on the plain, had the Spaniards had 
any other general in the command than the Duke of Berwick ; 
whose native sympathy gave a check to the ardour of a 
victorious enemy. And this was the sense of the Spaniards 
themselves after the battle ; verifying herein that noble 
maxim, that victory to generous minds is only an inducement 
to moderation. 

The day after this fatal battle (which gave occasion to a 
Spanish piece of wit, that the English general had routed the 
French), the Duke of Orleans did arrive indeed in the camp, 
but with an army of only fourteen attendants. 

The fatal effects of this battle were soon made visible and 
to none more than those in Alicant. The enemy grew every 
day more and more troublesome ; visiting us in parties more 
boldly than before ; and often hovering about us so very near, 
that with our cannon we could hardly teach them to keep 
a proper distance. Gorge, the governor of Alicant, being 
recalled into England, Major-general Richards was by King 
Charles appointed governor in his place. He was a Roman 
Catholic, and very much beloved by the natives on that 
account ; though, to give him his due, he behaved himself 
extremely well in all other respects. It was in his time, that 
a design was laid of surprising Guardamere, a small sea-port 
town in Murcia : but the military bishop (for he was, in a 
literal sense, excellent tarn Marte, quam Mercurio), among his 
many other exploits, by a timely expedition, prevented that. 

Governor Richards, my post being always in the castle, 
had sent to desire me to give notice whenever I saw any 

c c 2 



388 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

parties of the enemy moving. Pursuant to this order, dis- 
covering, one morning, a considerable body of horse towards 
Elsha, I went down into the town, and told the governor 
what I had seen ; and without any delay he gave his orders, 
that a captain, with threescore men, should attend me to an 
old house about a mile distance. As soon as we had got into 
it, I set about barricading all the open places, and avenues, 
and put my men in a posture ready to receive an enemy, as 
soon as he should appear ; upon which the captain, as a feint, 
ordered a few of his men to show themselves on a rising 
ground just before the house. But we had like to have caught 
a Tartar : for, though the enemy took the train I had laid, 
and, on sight of our small body on the hill, sent a party from 
their greater body to intercept them, before they could reach 
the town; yet the sequel proved, we had mistaken their 
number, and it soon appeared to be much greater than we at 
first imagined. However, our outscouts, as I may call them, 
got safe into the house ; and, on the appearance of the party, 
we let fly a full volley, which lay dead on the spot three men 
and one horse. Hereupon the whole body made up to the 
house, but stood aloof upon the hill without reach of our shot. 
We soon saw our danger from the number of the enemy ; 
and well for us it was, that the watchful governor had taken 
notice of it, as well as we in the house. For, observing us 
surrounded with the enemy, and by a power so much superior, 
he marched himself, with a good part of the garrison, to our 
relief. The enemy stood a little time as if they would receive 
them ; but upon second thoughts they retired, and, to our 
no little joy, left us at liberty to come out of the house and 
join the garrison. 

Scarce a day passed but we had some visits of the like 
kind, attended sometimes with rencounters of this nature ; 
insomuch that there was hardly any stirring out in safety for 
small parties, though never so little a way. There was, within 
a little mile of the town, an old vineyard, environed with a 
loose stone wall ; an officer and I made an agreement to ride 
thither for an airing. We did so, and, after a little riding, 
it came into my head to put a fright upon the officer. And 
very lucky for us both was that unlucky thought of mine ; 
pretending to see a party of the enemy make up to us, I gave 
him the alarm, set spurs to my horse, and rid as fast as legs 
could carry me. The officer no way bated of his speed; and 



COMICAL APPEARANCE OF MAJOR BOYD. 389 

we had scarce got out of the vineyard, but my jest proved 
earnest ; twelve of the enemy's horse pursuing us to the very 
gates of the town. Nor could I ever after prevail upon my 
fellow-traveller to believe, that he owed his escape to merri- 
ment more than speed. 

Soon after my charge, as to the fortifications, was pretty 
well over, I obtained leave of the governor to be absent for a 
fortnight, upon some affairs of my own at Valencia. On my 
return from whence, at a town called Venissa, I met two 
officers of an English regiment, going to the place from 
whence I last came. They told me, after common congratu- 
lations, that they had left Major Boyd at a little place called 
Capel, hiring another mule, that he rode on thither having 
tired and failed him ; desiring withal, that if I met him, I 
would let him know that they would stay for him at that 
place. I had another gentleman in my company, and we 
had travelled on not above a league farther, whence, at a 
little distance, we were both surprised with a sight that 
seemed to have set all art at defiance, and was too odd for 
anything in nature. It appeared all in red, and to move ; 
but so very slowly, that if we had not made more way to that 
than it did to us, we should have made it a day's journey 
before we met it. My companion could as little tell what to 
make of it as I ; and, indeed, the nearer it came, the more 
monstrous it seemed, having nothing of the tokens of man, 
either walking, riding, or in any posture whatever. At last, 
coming up with this strange figure of a creature (for now we 
found it was certainly such), what, or rather who, should it 
prove to be, but Major Boyd ! He was a person of himself 
far from one of the least proportion ; and, mounted on a poor 
little ass, with all his warlike accoutrements upon it, you will 
allow must make a figure almost as odd as one of the old 
centaurs. The Morocco saddle that covered the ass, was of 
burden enough for the beast, without its master ; and the 
additional holsters and pistols made it much more weighty. 
Nevertheless, a curb bridle of the largest size covered his 
little head, and a long red cloak, hanging down to the ground, 
covered jack-boots, ass. master, and all. In short, my com- 
panion and I, after we could specifically declare it to be a 
man, agreed we never saw a figure so comical in all our lives. 
When we had merrily greeted our major (for a cynic could 
not have forborne laughter), he excused all as well as ha 



390 MEMOIKS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

could, by saying, he could get no other beast. After which, 
delivering our message, and condoling with him for his 
present mounting, and wishing him better at his next 
quarters, he settled into his old pace, and we into ours, and 
parted. 

We lay that night at Altea, famous for its bay for ships to 
water at. It stands on a high hill ; and is adorned, not 
defended, with an old fort. 

Thence we came to Alicant, where having now been a 
whole year, and having effected what was held necessary, I 
once more prevailed upon the governor to permit me to take 
another journey. The Lord Galway lay at Tarraga, while 
Lerida lay under the siege of the Duke of Orleans ; and 
having some grounds of expectation given me, while he was 
at Alii cant, I resolved at least to demonstrate I was still 
living. The governor favoured me with letters, not at all to 
my disadvantage ; so taking ship for Barcelona, just at our 
putting into the harbour, we met with the English fleet, on 
its return from the expedition to Toulon under Sir Cloudsly 
Shovel. 

I stayed but very few days at Barcelona, and then proceeded 
on my intended journey to Tarraga ; arriving at which place, 
I delivered my packet to the Lord Galway, who received me 
with very great civility ; and, to double it, acquainted me at 
the same time, that the governor of Alicant had wrote very 
much in my favour ; but though it was a known part of that 
noble lord's character, that the first impression was generally 
strongest, I had reason soon after to close with another 
saying, equally true, That general rules always admit of some 
exception. While I was here, we had news of the taking of 
the town of Lerida ; the Prince of Hesse, brother to that 
brave prince, who lost his life before Monjouick, retiring into 
the castle with the garrison, which he bravely defended a 
long time after. 

When I was thus attending my Lord Galway at Tarraga, 
he received intelligence that the enemy had a design to lay 
siege to Denia ; whereupon he gave me orders to repair there 
as engineer. After I had received my orders, and taken 
leave of his lordship, I set out, resolving, since it was left to 
my choice, to go by way of Barcelona, and there take shipping 
for the place of my station ; by which I proposed to save 
more time than would allow me a full opportunity of visiting 



POSITION OF MONTSERAT. 391 

Montserat, a place I had heard much talk of, which had filled 
me with a longing desire to see it. To say truth, I had been 
told such extravagant things of the place, that I could hardly 
impute more than one-half of it to anything but Spanish 
rhodomontadoes, the vice of extravagant exaggeration being 
too natural to that nation. 

Montserat is a rising lofty hill, in the very middle of a 
spacious plain, in the principality of Catalonia, about seven 
leagues distant from Barcelona to the westward, somewhat 
inclining to the north. At the very first sight, its oddness 
of figure promises something extraordinary ; and even at that 
distance the prospect makes somewhat of a grand appearance : 
hundreds of aspiring pyramids, presenting themselves all at 
once to the eye, look, if I may be allowed so to speak, like a 
little petrified forest ; or, rather, like the awful ruins of some 
capacious structure, the labour of venerable antiquity. The 
nearer you approach, the more it affects ; but, till you are 
very near, you can hardly form in your mind anything like 
what you find it when you come close to it. Till just upon 
it, you would imagine it a perfect hill of steeples ; but so 
intermingled with trees of magnitude, as well as beauty, that 
your admiration can never be tired, or your curiosity 
surfeited. Such I found it on my approach ; yet much less 
than what I found it was, so soon as I entered upon the very 
premises. 

Now that stupendous cluster of pyramids affected me in a 
manner different to all before ; and I found it so finely 
grouped with verdant groves, and here and there interspersed 
with aspiring but solitary trees, that it no way lessened my 
admiration, while it increased my delight. These trees, which 
I call solitary, as standing single, in opposition to the numerous 
groves, which are close and thick (as I observed when I 
ascended to take a view of the several cells), rise generally 
out of the very clifts of the main rock, with nothing, to 
appearance, but a soil or bed of stone for their nurture. But 
though some few naturalists may assert, that the nitre in the 
stone may afford a due proportion of nourishment to trees and 
vegetables ; these, in my opinion, were all too beautiful, their 
bark, leaf, and flowers, carried too fair a face of health, to 
allow them even to be the foster-children of rock and stone 
only. . 

Upon this hill, or, if you please, grove of rocks, are thirteen 



392 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

hermits' cells, the last of which lies near the very summit. 
You gradually advance to every one, from bottom to top, by 
a winding ascent, which to do would otherwise be impossible, 
by reason of the steepness ; but though there is a winding 
ascent to every cell, as I have said, I would yet set at defiance 
the most observant, if a stranger, to find it feasible to visit 
them in order, if not precautioned to follow the poor borigo, 
or old ass, that, with panniers hanging on each side of him, 
mounts regularly and daily, up to every particular cell. The 
manner is as follows : — 

In the panniers there are thirteen partitions ; one for every 
cell. At the hour appointed, the servant having placed the 
panniers on his back, the ass, of himself, goes to the door of 
tha convent at the very foot of the hill, where every partition 
is supplied with their several allowances of victuals and wine. 
Which, as soon as he has received, without any farther 
attendance or any guide, he mounts and takes the cells 
gradually in their due course, till he reaches the very upper- 
most. Where, having discharged his duty, he descends the 
same way, lighter by the load he carried up. This the poor 
stupid drudge fails not to do, day and night, at the stated 
hours. 

Two gentlemen, who had joined me on the road, alike led 
by curiosity, seemed alike delighted, that the end of it was so 
well answered. I could easily discover in their countenances 
a satisfaction, which, if it did not give a sanction to my own, 
much confirmed it, while they seemed to allow with me that 
these reverend solitaries were truly happy men. I then 
thought them such; and a thousand times since reflecting 
within myself, have wished, bating their errors, and lesser 
superstitions, myself as happily stationed : for what can there 
be wanting to a happy life, where all things necessary are 
provided without care ? where the days, without anxiety x>r 
troubles, may be gratefully passed away, with an innocent 
variety of diverting and pleasing objects, and where their 
sleeps and slumbers are never interrupted with anything more 
offensive, than murmuring springs, natural cascades, or the 
various songs of the pretty feathered quiristers ? 

But their courtesy to strangers is no less engaging than their 
solitude. A recluse life, for the fruits of it, generally speaking, 
produces moroseness ; pharisaical pride too often sours the 
temper ; and a mistaken opinion of their own merit too 



hermits' cells at montserat. 393 

naturally leads such men into a contempt of others : but, on 
the contrary, these good men (for I must call them as I 
thought them) seemed to me the very emblems of innocence ; 
so ready to oblige others, that at the same instant they seemed 
laying obligations upon themselves. This is self-evident, in 
that affability and complaisance they use in showing the 
rarities of their several cells ; where, for fear you should slip 
anything worthy observation, they endeavour to instil in you 
as quick a propensity of asking, as you find in them a prompt 
alacrity in answering, such questions of curiosity as their own 
have inspired. 

In particular, I remember one of those reverend old men, 
when we were taking leave at the door of his cell, to which, 
out of his great civility, he accompanied us, finding by the 
air of our faces, as well as our expressions, that we thought 
ourselves pleasingly entertained ; to divert us afresh, advanced 
a few paces from the door, when, giving a whistle with his 
mouth, a surprising flock of pretty little birds, variegated, 
and of different colours, immediately flocked around him. 
Here you should see some alighting upon his shoulders, some 
on his awful beard, others took refuge on his snowlike head, 
and many feeding, and more endeavouring to feed, out of his 
mouth; each appearing emulous, and under an innocent 
contention, how best to express their love and respect to their 
no less pleased master. 

Nor did the other cells labour under any deficiency of 
variety: every one boasting in some particular, that might 
distinguish it in something equally agreeable and entertaining. 
Nevertheless, crystal springs spouting from the solid rocks 
were, from the highest to the lowest, common to them all ; 
and, in most of them, they had little brass cocks, out of which, 
when turned, issued the most cool and crystalline flows of 
excellent pure water. And yet, what more affected me, and 
which I found near more cells than one, was the natural 
cascades of the same transparent element ; these, falling from 
one rock to another, in that warm, or rather hot climate, 
gave not more delightful astonishment to the eye, than they 
afforded grateful refreshment to the whole man. The streams 
falling from these, soften, from a rougher tumultuous noise, 
into such affecting murmurs, by distance, the intervention of 
groves, or neighbouring rocks, that it were impossible to see 
or hear them, and not be charmed. 



394 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

Neither are those groves grateful only in a beautiful 
verdure ; nature renders them otherwise delightful, in loading 
them with clusters of berries of a perfect scarlet colour, which, 
by a beautiful intermixture, strike the eye with additional 
delight. In short, it might nonplus a person of the nicest 
taste, to distinguish or determine, whether the neatness of 
their cells, within, or the beauteous varieties without, most 
exhaust his admiration. Nor is the whole, in my opinion, a 
little advantaged by the frequent view of some of those pyra- 
midical pillars, which seem, as weary of their own weight, to 
recline and seek support from others in the neighbourhood. 

When I mentioned the outside beauties of their cells, I 
must be thought to have forgot to particularize the glorious 
prospects presented to your eye from every one of them ; but 
especially from that nearest the summit. A prospect, by 
reason of the purity of the air, so extensive, and so very 
entertaining, that to dilate upon it properly to one that never 
saw it, would baffle credit ; and naturally to depaint it, would 
confound invention. I therefore shall only say, that on the 
Mediterranean side, after an agreeable interval of some fair 
leagues, it will set at defiance the strongest optics; and 
although Barcelona bounds it on the land, the eyes- are feasted 
with the delights of such an intervening champaign (where 
beauteous nature does not only smile, but riot), that the sense 
must be very temperate, or very weak, that can be soon or 
easily satisfied. 

Having thus taken a view of all their refreshing springs, 
their grateful groves, and solitary shades under single trees, 
whose clusters proved that even rocks were grown fruitful ; 
and having ran over all the variety of pleasures in their 
several pretty cells, decently set off with gardens round them, 
equally fragrant and beautiful, we were brought down again 
to the convent, which, though on a small ascent, lies very 
near the foot of this terrestrial paradise, there to take a survey 
of their sumptuous hall, much more sumptuous chapel, 
and its adjoining repository, and feast our eyes with wonders 
of a different nature ; and yet as entertaining as any, or all, 
we had seen before. 

Immediately on our descent, a priest presented himself at 
the door of the convent, ready to show us the hidden rarities. 
And though, as I understood, hardly a day passes without 
the resort of some strangers to gratify their curiosity with the 



HALL AND CHAPEL OF THE CONVENT. 395 

wonders of the place, yet is there, on every such occasion, a 
superior concourse of natives ready to see over again, out of 
mere bigotry and superstition, what they have seen perhaps 
a hundred times before. I could not avoid taking notice, 
however, that the priests treated those constant visitants with 
much less ceremony, or more freedom, if you please, than 
any of the strangers of what nation soever ; or, indeed, he 
seemed to take as much pains to disoblige those, as he did 
pleasure in obliging us. 

The hall was neat, large, and stately : but being plain, 
and unadorned with more than decent decorations, suitable 
to such a society, I hasten to the other. 

When we entered the chapel, our eyes were immediately 
attracted by the image of our lady of Montserat (as they call 
it), which stands over the altar-piece. It is about the natural 
stature, but as black and shining as ebony itself. Most 
would imagine it made of that material ; though her retinue 
and adorers will allow nothing of the matter... On the con- 
trary, tradition, which with them is, on some occasions, more 
than tantamount to religion, has assured them, and they re- 
late it as undoubted matter of fact, that her present colour, if 
I may so call it, proceeded from her concealment, in the time 
of the Moors, between those two rocks on which the chapel is 
founded ; and that her long lying in that dismal place changed 
her once lovely white into its present opposite. Would not 
a heretic here be apt to say, that it was a great pity that an 
image which still boasts the power of acting so many miracles, 
could no better conserve her own complexion ? At least it 
must be allowed, even by a good catholic, to carry along with 
it matter of reproach to the fair ladies, natives of the country, 
for their unnatural and excessive affection of adulterating, if 
not defacing their beautiful faces, with the ruinating dauberies 
of carmine. 

As the custom of the place is (which is likewise allowed to 
be a distinguishing piece of civility to strangers), when we 
approach the black lady (who, I should have told you, 
bears a child in her arms ; but whether maternally black, or 
of the mulatto kind, I protest I did not mind), the priest, in 
great civility, offers you her arm to salute ; at which junc- 
ture, I, like a true blue Protestant, mistaking my word of 
command, fell foul on the fair lady's face. The displeasure 
in his countenance (for he took more notice of the rudeness 



396 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

than the good lady herself) soon convinced me of my error ; 
however, as a greater token of his civility, having admitted 
no Spaniards along with my companions and me, it passed 
off the better ; and his after civilities manifested that he was 
willing to reform my ignorance by his complaisance. 

To demonstrate which, upon my telling him that I had a 
set of beads, which I must entreat him to consecrate for me, 
he readily, nay eagerly complied ; and having hung them on 
her arm for the space of about half, or somewhat short of a 
whole minute, he returned me the holy baubles with a great 
deal of address, and most evident satisfaction. The reader will 
be apt to admire at this curious piece of superstition of mine, 
till I have told him that even rigid Protestants have, in this 
country, thought it but prudent to do the like ; and likewise 
having so done, to carry them about their persons, or in 
their pockets ; for experience has convinced us of the neces- 
sity of this most catholic precaution ; since those who have 
here, travelling or otherwise, come to their ends, whether by 
accident, sickness, or the course of nature, not having these 
sanctifying seals found upon them, have ever been refused 
Christian burial, under a superstitious imagination that the 
corpse of a heretic will infect everything near it. 

Two instances of this kind fell within my knowledge ; one 
before I came to Montserat, the other after. The first was 
of one Slunt, who had been bombardier at Monjouick ; but 
being killed while we lay at Campilio, a priest, whom I ad- 
vised with upon the matter, told me, that if he should be 
buried where any corn grew, his body would not only be 
taken up again, but ill-treated, in revenge of the destruction 
of so much corn, which the people would on no account be 
persuaded to touch ; for which reason we took care to have 
him laid in a very deep grave, on a very barren spot of 
ground. The other was of one Captain Bush, who was a 
prisoner with me on the surrender of Denia; who being sent, 
as I was afterwards, to St. Clemente la Mancha, there died ; 
and, as I was informed, though he was privately, and by 
night, buried in a corn field, he was taken out of his grave by 
those superstitious people, as soon as ever they could dis- 
cover the place where his body was deposited. But I return 
to the convent at Montserat. 

Out of the chapel, behind the high altar, we descended 
into a spacious room, the repository of the great offerings 



SUPERSTITIOUS TRIBUTE TO THE LADY. 397 

made to the lady. Here, though I thought in the chapel 
itself I had seen the riches of the universe, I found a prodi- 
gious quantity of more costly presents, the superstitious tri- 
bute of most of the Roman Catholic princes in Europe. 
Among a multitude of others, they showed me a sword set 
with diamonds, the offering of Charles III., then King of 
Spain, but now Emperor of Germany. Though, I must con- 
fess, being a heretic, I could much easier find a reason for a 
fair lady's presenting such a sword to a King of Spain, than 
for a King of Spain presenting such a sword to a fair lady ; 
and by the motto upon it, Pulchra tamen nigra, it was plain 
such was his opinion. That prince was so delighted with 
the pleasures of this sweet place, that he, as well as I, stayed 
as long as ever he could; though neither of us so long as 
either could have wished. 

But there was another offering from a King of Portugal, 
equally glorious and costly, but much better adapted ; and 
therefore in its propriety easier to be accounted for. That 
was a glory for the head of her ladyship, every ray of which 
was set with diamonds, large at the bottom, and gradually 
lessening to the very extremity of every ray. Each ray might 
be about half a yard long ; and I imagined in the whole, 
there might be about one hundred of them. In short, if ever 
her ladyship did the offerer the honour to put it on, I will, 
though a heretic, venture to aver, she did not, at that pre- 
sent time, look like a human creature. 

To enumerate the rest, if my memory would suffice, would 
exceed belief. As the upper part was a plain miracle of 
nature, the lower was a complete treasury of miraculous art. 

If you ascend from the lowest cell to the very summit, the 
last of all the thirteen, you will perceive a continual conten- 
tion between pleasure and devotion ; and at last, perhaps, 
find yourself at a loss to decide which deserves the pre- 
eminence : for you are not here to take cells in the vulgar 
acceptation, as the little dormitories of solitary monks : No ! 
neatness, use, and contrivance, appear in every one of them ; 
and though in an almost perfect equality, yet in such perfec- 
tion, that you will find it difficult to discover in any one ot 
them anything wanting to the pleasure of life. 

If you descend to the convent near the foot of the venerable 
hill, you may see more, much more of the riches of the world; 
but less, far less appea/ance of a celestial treasure. Perhaps 



308 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

it might be only the sentiment of a heretic ; but that awe and 
devotion, which I found in my attendant from cell to cell, 
grew languid, and lost, in mere empty bigotry and foggy 
superstition, when I came below. In short, there was not a 
greater difference in their heights, than in the sentiments 
they inspired me with. 

Before I leave this emblem of the beatific vision, I must 
correct something like a mistake, as to the poor borigo. I 
said at the beginning, that his labour was daily; but the 
Sunday is to him a day of rest, as it. is to the hermits, his 
masters, a day of refection. For, to save the poor faithful 
brute the hard drudgery of that day, the thirteen hermits, if 
health permit, descend to their cosnobium, as they call it ; that 
is, to the hall of the convent, where they dine in common 
with the monks of the order, who are Benedictines. 

After seven days' variety of such innocent delight (the 
space allowed for the entertainment of strangers), I took my 
leave of this pacific hermitage, to pursue the more boisterous 
duties of my calling. The life of a soldier is in every re- 
spect the full antithesis to that of a hermit ; and I know not 
whether it might not be a sense of that, which inspired me 
with very great reluctancy at parting. I confess, while on 
the spot, I over and over bandied in my mind the reasons 
which might prevail upon Charles V. to relinquish his crown ; 
and the arguments on his side never failed of energy, when I 
could persuade myself that this, or some like happy retreat, 
was the reward of abdicated empire. 

Full of these contemplations (for they lasted there), I 
arrived at Barcelona ; where I found a vessel ready to sail, 
on which I embarked for Denia, in pursuance of my orders. 
Sailing to the mouth of the Mediterranean, no place along the 
Christian shore affords a prospect equally delightful with the 
castle of Denia. It was never designed for a place of great 
strength, being built and first designed, as a seat of pleasure 
to the great Duke of Lerma. In that family it many years 
remained ; though, within less than a century, that, with two 
other dukedoms, have devolved upon the family of the 
Duke de Medina Celi, the richest subject at this time in all 
Spain. 



GARRISON OF DENIA. 399 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DENIA A GARRISON, BY ORDER OF KING CHARLES — EXTRA- 
ORDINARY STORM OF LOCUSTS SINGULAR MINE EXPLOSION 

AT ALICANT SAINTE CLEMENTE DE LA MANCHA RENDERED 

FAMOUS BY THE RENOWNED DON MICHAEL CERVANTES 

INTERESTING ACCOUNTS SURPRISING FLIGHT OF EAGLES 

THE INQUISITION. 

Denia was the first town, that, in our way to Barcelona, 
declared for King Charles ; and was then, by his order, made 
a garrison. The town is but small, and surrounded with a 
thin wall ; so thin, that I have known a cannon-ball pierce 
through it at once. 

When I arrived at Denia, I found a Spaniard governor of 
the town, whose name has slipt my memory, though his be- 
haviour merited everlasting annals. Major Percival, an 
Englishman, commanded in the castle, and on my coming 
there, I understood it had been agreed between them, that in 
case of a siege, which they apprehended, the town should 
be defended wholly by. Spaniards, and the castle by the 
English. 

I had scarce been there three weeks before those expecta- 
tions were answered. The place was invested by Count 
D'Alfelt, and Major-general Mahoni; two days after which, 
they opened trenches on the east side of the town. I was 
necessitated, upon their so doing, to order the demolishment 
of some houses on that side, that I might erect a battery to 
point upon their trenches, the better to annoy them. I did 
so ; and it did the intended service ; for with that, and two 
others, which I raised upon the castle (from all which we 
fired incessantly, and with great success), the besiegers were 
sufficiently incommoded. 

The governor of the town (a Spaniard, as I said before, 
and with a Spanish garrison) behaved very gallant]/ ; inso- 
much, that what was said of the Prince of Hesse, when he 
so bravely defended Gibraltar against the joint forces of 
France and Spain, might be said of him, that he was governor, 
engineer, gunner, and bombardier all in one : for no man 



400 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

could exceed him, either in conduct or courage. Nor were 
the Spaniards under him less valiant or vigilant ; for in case 
the place was taken, expecting but indifferent quarter, they 
fought with bravery, and detended the place to admiration. 

The enemy had answered our fire with all the ardour 
imaginable ; and having made a breach, that, as we thought, 
was practicable, a storm was expected every hour. Prepar- 
ing against which, to the great joy of all the inhabitants, and 
the surprise of the whole garrison, and without our being 
able to assign the least cause, the enemy suddenly raised the 
siege, and withdrew from a place which those within imagined 
in great danger. 

. The siege thus abdicated (if I may use a modern phrase), 
I was resolved to improve my time, and make the best pro- 
vision I could against any future attack. To that purpose I 
made several new fortifications, together with proper case- 
ments for our powder, all which rendered the place much 
stronger, though time too soon showed me that strength itselt 
must yield to fortune. 

Surveying those works, and my workmen, I was one day 
standing on the great battery, when casting my eye toward 
the Barbary coast, I observed an odd sort of greenish cloud 
making to the Spanish shore ; not like other clouds, with ra- 
pidity or swiftness ; but with a motion so slow, that sight 
itself was a long time before it would allow it such. At last 
it came just over my head, and interposing between the sun 
and me, so thickened the air, that I had lost the very sight of 
day. At this moment it had reached the land ; and though 
very near me in my imagination, it began to dissolve, and lose 
of its first tenebrity, when, all on a sudden, there fell such a 
vast multitude of locusts, as exceeded the thickest storm of 
hail or snow that I ever saw. All around me was immedi- 
ately covered with those crawling creatures ; and they yet 
continued to fall so thick, that with the swing of my cane I 
knocked down thousands. It is scarce imaginable the havoc 
I made in a very little space of time ; much less conceivable 
is the horrid desolation which attended the visitation of those 
animalcule. There was not, in a .day or two's time, the least 
leaf to be seen upon a tree, nor any green thing in a garden. 
Nature seemed buried in her own ruins, and, the vegetable 
world to be supporters only to her monument. I never saw 
the hardest winter, in those parts, attended with any equal 



DEVASTATION AND PESTILENCE BY LOCUSTS. 401 

desolation. When, glutton-like, they had devoured all that 
should have sustained them, and the more valuable part of 
God's creation (whether weary with gorging, or over- thirsty 
with devouring, I leave to philosophers), they made to ponds, 
brooks, and standing pools, there revenging their own rape 
upon nature, upon their own vile carcases. In every one of 
these you might see them lie in heaps like little hills; 
drowned indeed, but attended with stenches so noisome, that 
it gave the distracted neighbourhood too great reason to 
apprehend yet more fatal consequences. A pestilential in- 
fection is the dread of every place, but especially of all parts 
upon the Mediterranean. The priests, therefore, repaired to 
a little chapel, built in the open fields, to be made use of on 
such-like occasions, there to deprecate the miserable cause of 
this dreadful visitation. In a week's time, or thereabouts, 
the stench was over, and everything but verdant nature in its 
pristine order. 

Some few months after this, and about eight months from 
the former siege, Count D'Alfelt caused Denia to be again 
invested ; and being then sensible of all the mistakes he had 
before committed, he now went about his business with more 
regularity and discretion. The first thing he set upon, and it 
was the wisest thing he could do, was to cut off our com- 
munication with the sea. This he did, and thereby obtained 
what he much desired. Next, he caused his batteries to be 
erected on the west side of the town, from which he plied it 
so furiously, that in five days' time a practicable breach was 
made ; upon which they stormed and took it. The governor, 
who had so bravely defended it in the former siege, for- 
tunately for him, had been removed ; and Francis Valero, 
now in his place, was made prisoner of war with all his 
garrison. 

After the taking the town, they erected batteries against 
the castle, which they kept plied with incessant fire, both 
from cannon and mortars. But what most of all plagued 
us, and did us most mischief, was the vast showers of stones 
sent among the garrison from their mortars. These, terrible 
in bulk and size, did more execution than all the rest put 
together. The garrison could not avoid being somewhat 
disheartened at this uncommon way of rencounter, yet, to a 
man, declared against hearkening to any proposals of sur- 
render, the governor excepted; who, having selected more 

VOL. II. D D 



402 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON, 

treasure than lie could properly or justly call his own, was 
the only person that seemed forward for such a motion. He 
had more than once thrown out expressions of such a 
nature, but without any effect. Nevertheless, having at last 
secretly obtained a peculiar capitulation for himself, bag, 
and baggage, the garrison was sacrificed to his private 
interest, and basely given up prisoners of war. By these 
means, indeed, he saved his money, but lost his reputation ; 
and soon after life itself. And sure everybody will allow the 
latter loss to be least, who will take pains to consider that it 
screened him from the consequential scrutinies of a council 
of war, which must have issued as the just reward of his 
demerits. • 

The garrison, being thus unaccountably delivered up and 
made prisoners, were dispersed different ways : some into 
Castile, others as far as Oviedo, in the kingdom of Leon. 
For my own part, having received a contusion in my breast, 
I was under a necessity of being left behind with the enemy, 
till I should be in a condition to be removed; and when that 
time came, I found myself agreeably ordered to Valencia. 

As a prisoner of war, I must now bid adieu to the active 
part of the military life, and hereafter concern myself with 
descriptions of countries, towns, palaces, and men, instead 
of battles. However, if I take in my way actions of war, 
founded on the best authorities, I hope my interspersing 
such will be no disadvantage to my now more pacific 
Memoirs. 

So soon as I arrived at Valencia, I wrote to our pay- 
master, Mr. Mead, at Barcelona, letting him know that I 
was become a prisoner, wounded, and in want of money. 
Nor could even all those circumstances prevail on me to 
think it long before he returned a favourable answer, in an 
order to Monsieur Zoulicafre, a banker, to pay me, on sight, 
fifty pistoles. But in the same letter he gave me to under- 
stand that those fifty pistoles were a present to me from 
General (afterwards Earl) Stanhope ; and so indeed I found 
it, when I returned into England, my account not being 
charged with any part of it ; but this was not the only test 
I received of that generous earl's generosity. And where's 
the wonder, as the world is compelled to own, that heroic 
actions and largeness of soul ever did discover and amply 
distinguish the genuine branches of that illustrious family? 



TERRIFIC MINE SPRUNG AT ALICANT. 403 

This recruit to me, however, was the more generous for 
being seasonable. Benefits are always doubled in their 
being easily conferred and well timed ; and with such an 
allowance as I constantly had by the order of King Philip, 
as prisoner of war, viz., eighteen ounces of mutton per diem 
for myself, and nine for my man, with bread and wine in 
proportion, and especially in such a situation ; all this, I say, 
was sufficient to invite a man to be easy, and almost forget 
his want of liberty; and much more so to me, if it be 
considered that that want of liberty consisted only in being 
debarred from leaving the pleasantest city in all Spain. 

Here I met with the French engineer who made the mine 
under the rock of the castle at Alicant; that fatal mine, 
which blew up General Richards, Colonel Syburg, Colonel 
Thornicroft, and at least twenty more officers. And yet, by 
the account that engineer gave me, their fate was their own 
choosing ; the general, who commanded at that siege, being 
more industrious to save them than they were to be saved. 
He endeavoured it many ways : he sent them word of the 
mine, and their readiness to spring it ; he over and over sent 
them offers of leave to come and take a view of it, and 
inspect it. Notwithstanding all which, though Colonel 
Thornicroft, and Captain Page, a French engineer in the 
service of King . Charles, pursued the invitation, and were 
permitted to view it, yet would they not believe ; but re- 
ported on their return, that it was a sham mine, a feint only, 
to intimidate them to a surrender, all the bags being filled 
with sand instead of gunpowder. 

The very day on whieh the besiegers designed to spring 
the mine, they gave notice of it; and the people of the 
neighbourhood ran up in crowds to an opposite hill in order 
to see it : nevertheless, although those in the castle saw all 
this, they still remained so infatuated, as to imagine it all 
done only to affright them. At length the fatal mine was 
sprung, and all who were upon that battery lost their lives ; 
and, among them, those I first mentioned. The very recital 
hereof made me think within myself, Who can resist his 
fate? 

That engineer added farther, that it was with an in- 
credible difficulty that he prepared that mine ; that there 
were in the concavity thirteen hundred barrels of powder ; 
notwithstanding which, it made no great noise without, 

d d 2 



404 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

whatever it might do inwardly ; that only taking away what 
might be not improperly termed an excrescence in the rock, 
the heave on the blast had rendered the castle rather stronger 
on that side than it was before; a crevice or crack, which 
had often occasioned apprehensions, being thereby wholly 
closed and firm. 

Some farther particulars I soon after had from Colonel 
Syburg's gentleman; who, seeing me at the playhouse, 
challenged me, though at that time unknown to me. He 
told me, that, the night preceding the unfortunate catas- 
trophe of his master, he was waiting on him in the case- 
ment, where he observed, some time before the rest of the 
company took notice of it, that General Richards appeared 
very pensive and thoughtful ; that the whole night long he 
was pestered with, and could not get rid of a great fly, 
which was perpetually buzzing about his ears and head, to 
the vexation and disturbance of the rest of the company, as 
well as the general himself; that in the morning, when they 
went upon the battery, under which the mine was, the 
general made many offers of going off; but Colonel Syburg, 
who was got a little merry, and the rest out of a bravado, 
would stay, and would not let the general stir ; that at last 
it was proposed by Colonel Syburg to have the other two 
bottles to the queen's health, after which he promised they 
would all go off together. 

Upon this, my relater, Syburg's gentleman, said, he was 
sent to fetch the stipulated two bottles ; returning with 
which, Captain Daniel Weaver, within thirty or forty yards 
of the battery, ran by him, vowing he was resolved to drink 
the queen's health with them ; but his feet were scarce on 
the battery, when the mine was sprung, which took him 
away with the rest of the company ; while Major Harding, 
now a justice in Westminster, coming that very moment off 
duty, exchanged fates. 

If predestination in the eyes of many is an unaccountable 
doctrine, what better account can the wisest give of this 
fatality ? Or to what else shall we impute the issue of this 
whole transaction? That men shall be solicited to their 
safety ; suffered to survey the danger they were threatened 
with; among many other tokens of its approaching cer- 
tainty, see such a concourse of people crowding to be 
spectators of their impending catastrophe; and after all 



FOUNDER OF THE FRANCISCAN ORDER. 405 

this, so infatuated to stay on the fatal spot the fetching up, 
to the other two bottles ; whatever it may to such as never 
think, to such as plead an use of reason, it must administer 
matter worthy of the sedatest consideration. 

Being now pretty well recovered of my wounds, I was, by 
order of the Govenor of Valencia, removed to Sainte 
Clemente de la Mancha, a town somewhat more inland, and 
consequently esteemed more secure than a semi-seaport. 
Here I remained under a sort of pilgrimage upwards of 
three years. To me, as a stranger, divested of acquaintance 
or friend (for at that instant I was sole prisoner there), at 
first it appeared such, though in a very small compass of 
time, I luckily found it made quite otherwise by an agreeable 
conversation. 

Sainte Clemente de la Mancha is rendered famous by the 
renowned Don Michael Cervantes, who, in his facetious but 
satirical romance, has fixed it the seat and birthplace.; of his 
hero Don Quixotte. s 

The gentlemen of this place are the least priest-ridden, or 
sons of bigotry, of any that I met with in all Spain ; of which, 
in my conversation with them, I had daily instances. 
Among many others, an expression that fell from Don Felix 
Pacheo, a gentleman of the best figure thereabout, and of a 
very plentiful fortune, shall now suffice. I was become very 
intimate with him ; and we used often to converse together 
with a freedom too dangerous to be common in a country so 
enslaved by the Inquisition. Asking me one day, in a sort 
of a jocose manner, who, in my opinion, had done the 
greatest miracles that ever were heard of? I answered, 
Jesus Christ. It is very tr le, says he, Jesus Christ did great 
miracles, and a great one it was to feed five thousand people 
with two or three small fishes, and a like number of loaves : 
but St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order, has 
found out a way to feed daily one hundred thousand lubbards 
with nothing at all ; meaning the Franciscans, the followers 
of St. Francis, who have no visible revenues, yet, in their 
way of living, come up to, if they do not exceed, any other 
order. 

Another day, talking of the place, it naturally led us into 
a discourse of the Knight of la Mancha, Don Quixotte. At 
which time he told me, that, in his opinion, that work was a 
perfect paradox, being the best and worst romance that ever 



406 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

was wruie. For, says he, though it must infallibly plea»«3 
every man that has any taste of wit, yet has it had such a 
fatal effect upon the spirits of my countrymen, that every 
man of wit must ever resent; for, continued he, before the 
appearance in the world of that labour of Cervantes, it was 
next to an impossibility for a man to walk the streets with 
any delight, or without danger. There were seen so many 
cavalieros prancing and curvetting before the windows of 
their mistresses, that a stranger would have imagined the 
whole nation to have been nothing less than a race of knight 
errants. But after the world became a little acquainted with 
that notable history, the man that was seen in that once 
celebrated drapery, was pointed at as a Don Quixotte, and 
found himself the jest of high and low. And I verily believe, 
added he, that to this, and this only, we owe that dampness 
and poverty of spirit, which has run through all our councils 
for a century past, so little agreeable to those nobler actions 
of our famous ancestors. 

After many of these lesser sorts of confidences, Don Felix 
recommended me to a lodging next door to his own. It was 
at a widow's, who had one only daughter, her house just 
opposite to a Franciscan nunnery. Here I remained some- 
what upwards of two years ; all which time, lying in my bed, 
I could hear the nuns early in the morning at their matins, 
and late in the evening at their vespers, with delight enough 
to myself, and without the least indecency in the world in 
my thoughts of them. Their own divine employ too much 
employed every faculty of mine, to entertain anything incon- 
sentaneous or offensive. 

•This my neighbourhood to the nunnery gave me an oppor- 
tunity of seeing two nuns invested ; and in this I must do a 
justice to the whole country to acknowledge, that a stranger, 
who is curious (I would impute it rather to their hopes • of 
conversion, than to their vanity), shall be admitted to much 
greater freedoms in their religious pageantries, than any 
native. 

One of these nuns was of the first quality, which rendered 
the ceremony more remarkably fine. The manner of invest- 
ing them was this : in the morning her relations and friends 
all met at her father's house ; whence, she being attired 
in her most sumptuous apparel, and a coronet placed on her 
head, they attended her, in cavalcade, to the nunnery, the 



INVESTMENT OF NUNS AT DE LA MANCHA. 407 

streets and windows being crowded, and filled with spectators 
of all sorts. 

So soon as she entered the chapel belonging to the nunnery, 
she kneeled down, and, with an appearance of much devotion, 
saluted the ground ; then rising up, she advanced a step or 
two farther ; when on her knees she repeated the salutes ; 
this done, she approached to the altar, where she remained 
till mass was over : after which, a sermon was preached by 
one of the priests, in praise, or rather in an exalted preference, 
of a single life. The sermon being over, the nun elect fell 
down on her knees before the altar ; and, after some short 
mental orisons, rising again, she withdrew into an inner 
room, where, stripping off all her rich attire, she put on her 
nun's weeds ; in which, making her appearance, she, again 
kneeling, offered up some private devotions ; which being 
over, she was led to the door of the nunnery, where the lady 
and the rest of the nuns stood ready to receive her with open 
arms. Thus entered, the nuns conducted her into the quire, 
where after they had entertained her with singing, and play- 
ing upon the organ, the ceremony concluded, and every one 
departed to their proper habitations. 

The very same day of the year ensuing, the relations and 
friends of the fair novitiate meet again in the chapel of the 
nunnery, where the lady abbess brings her out, and delivers 
her to them. Then again is there a sermon preached on the 
same subject as at first ; which being over, she is brought up 
to the altar in a decent, but plain dress ; the fin a apparel, 
which she put off on her initiation, being deposited on one 
side of the altar, and her nun's weeds on the other. Here 
the priest in Latin cries, Utrum orum mavis, accipe : to which 
she answers as her inclination, or as her instruction, directs 
her. If she, after this her year of probation, show any dislike, 
she is at liberty to come again into the world : but if awed 
by fear (as too often is the case), or won by expectation, or 
present real inclination, she makes choice of the nun's weeds, 
she is immediately invested, and must never expect to appear 
again in the world out of the walls of the nunnery. The 
young lady I saw thus invested was very beautiful, and sang 
the best of any in the nunnery. 

There are in the town three nunneries, and a convent to 
every one of them ; viz., one of Jesuits, one of Carmelites, 
and the other of Franciscans. Let me not be so far mistaken, 



408 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

to have this taken byway of reflection. No ! whatever some 
of our rakes of the town may assert, I freely declare, that I 
never saw in any of the nunneries (of which I have seen 
many both in Spain and other parts of the world), anything 
like indecent behaviour, that might give occasion for satire 
or disesteem. It is true, there may be accidents, that may 
lead to a misinterpretation; of which I remember a very 
untoward instance in Alicant. 

When the English forces first laid siege to that town, the 
priests, who were apprehensive of it, having been long since 
made sensible of the profound regard to chastity and modesty 
of us heretics, by the ignominious behaviour of certain officers 
at Rota and Porta St. Maria ; the priests, I say, had taken 
care to send away privately all the nuns to Majorca. But 
that the heretic invaders might have no jealousy of it, the fair 
courtezans of the town were admitted to supply their room. 
The officers, both of land and sea, as was by the friars pre- 
imagined, on taking the town and castle, immediately repaired 
to the grates of the nunnery, tossed over their handkerchiefs, 
nosegays, and other pretty things ; all which were doubtless 
very graciously received by those imaginary recluses. Thence 
came it to pass, that, in the space of a month or less, you 
could hardly fall into company of any one of our younger 
officers, of either sort, but the discourse, if it might deserve 
the name, was concerning these beautiful nuns ; and you 
would have imagined the price of these ladies as well known 
as that of flesh in their common markets. Others, as well as 
myself, have often endeavoured to disabuse those gloriosos, 
but all to little purpose, till more sensible tokens convinced 
them that the nuns, of whose favours they so much boasted, 
could hardly be perfect virgins, though in a cloister. And I 
am apt to think those who would palm upon the world like 
vicious relations of nuns and nunneries, do it on' much like 
grounds. Not that there are wanting instances of nunneries 
disfranchised, and even demolished upon very flagrant 
accounts; but I confine myself to Spain. 

In this town of La Mancha, the corrigidore always has his 
presidence, having sixteen others under his jurisdiction, of 
which Almanza is one. They are changed every three years, 
and their offices are the purchase of an excessive price, which 
occasions the poor people's being extravagantly fleeced, 
nothing being to be sold but at the rates they impose ; and 



SUKPRISING FLOCK OF EAGLES. 409 

everything that is sold, paying the corrigidore an acknowledg- 
ment in specie, or an equivalent to his liking. 

While I was here, news came of the battle of Almanar 
and Saragosa; and giving the victory to that side which they 
espoused (that of King Philip), they made very great re- 
joicings. But soon, alas, for them, was all that joy converted 
into sorrow : the next courier evincing that the forces of 
King Charles had been victorious in both engagements. 
This did not turn to my present disadvantage ; for convents 
and nunneries, as well as some of those dons, whom afore 
I had not stood so well with, strove now how most to oblige 
me, not doubting but if the victorious army should march that 
way, it might be in my power to double the most signal of 
their services in my friendship. 

Soon after, an accident fell out, which had like to have 
been of an unhappy consequence to me. I was standing in 
company, upon the parade, when a most surprising flock of 
eagles flew over our heads, where they hovered for a con- 
siderable time. The novelty struck them all with admiration, 
as well as myself. But I, less accustomed to like spectacles, 
innocently saying, that, in my opinion, it could not bode 
any good to King Philip, because the eagle composed the 
arms of Austria; some busybody, in hearing, went and 
informed the corrigidore of it. Those most magisterial 
wretches embrace all occasions of squeezing money, and 
more especially from strangers. However, finding his ex- 
pectations disappointed in me, and that I too well knew the 
length of his foot, to let my money run freely, he sent me 
next day to Alercon ; but the governor of that place having 
had before intelligence that the English army was advancing 
that way, refused' to receive me, so I returned as I went ; 
only the gentlemen of the place, as they had condoled the 
first, congratulated the last; for that corrigidore stood but 
very indifferently in their affections. However, it was a 
warning to me ever after, how I made use of English 
freedom in a Spanish territory. 

As I had attained the acquaintance of most of the clergy 
and religious of the place, so particularly I had my aim in 
obtaining that of the provincial of the Carmelites. His 
convent, though small, was exceeding neat ; but what to me 
was much more agreeable, there were very large gardens 
belonging to it, which often furnished me with salading and 



410 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

fruit, and much oftener with walks of refreshment, the most 
satisfactory amusement in this warm climate. This ac- 
quaintance with the provincial was by a little incident soon 
advanced into a friendship, which was thus : I was one day 
walking, as I used to do, in the long gallery of the convent, 
when, observing the images of the Virgin Mary, of which 
there was one at each end, I took notice that one had an 
inscription under it, which was this : Ecce Virgo peperit 
filium ; but the other had no inscription at all ; upon which, 
I took out my pencil, and wrote underneath this line : 

Sponsa Dei, patrisque parens, et filia filii. 

The friars, who at a little distance had observed me, as 
soon as I was gone, came up and read what I had writ ; 
reporting which to the provincial, he ordered them to be 
writ over in letters of gold, and placed just as I had put 
them; saying, doubtless such a fine line could proceed from 
nothing less than inspiration. This secured me, ever after, 
his and their esteem ; the least advantage of which was a 
full liberty of their garden for all manner of fruit, salading, 
or whatever I pleased ; and, as I said before, the gardens 
were too fine not to render such a freedom acceptable. 

They often want rain in this country; to supply the defect 
of which I observed in this garden, as well as others, an 
invention not unuseful. There is a well in the middle of the 
garden, and over that a wheel, with many pitchers, or 
buckets, one under another, which wheel being turned round 
by an ass, the pitchers scoop up the water on one side, and 
throw it out on the other into a trough, that by little chan- 
nels conveys it, as the gardener directs, into every part of 
the garden. By this means their flowers and their salading 
are continually refreshed, and preserved from the otherwise 
over-parching beams of the sun. 

The Inquisition, in almost every town in Spain (and more 
especially if of any great account), has its spies, or informers, 
for treacherous intelligence. These make it their business to 
ensnare the simple and unguarded, and are more to be 
avoided by the stranger than the rattlesnake, nature having 
appointed no such happy tokens in the former to foreshow 
the danger. I had reason to believe that one of those 
vermin once made his attack upon me in this place ; and as 



SPIES OF THE INQUISITION. 411 

they are very rarely, if ever, known to the natives them- 
selves, I, being a stranger, may be allowed to make a guess 
by circumstances. 

I was walking by myself, when a person, wholly unknown 
to me, giving me the civil salute of the day, endeavoured to 
draw me into conversation. After questions had passed on 
general heads, the fellow ensnaringly asked me how it came 
to pass that I showed so little respect to the image of the 
crucified Jesus, as I passed by it in such a street, naming it ? 
I made answer, that I had, or ought to have, him always in 
my heart crucified. To that he made no reply ; but, pro- 
ceeding in his interrogatories, questioned me next whether I 
believed a purgatory f I evaded the question, as I took it to 
be ensnaring ; and only told him that I should be willing to 
hear him offer anything that might convince me of the 
truth, or probability of it. Truth? he replied in a heat; 
there never yet was man so holy as to enter heaven without 
first passing through purgatory. In my opinion, said I, 
there will be no difficulty in convincing a reasonable man to 
the contrary. What mean you by that? cried the spy. I 
mean, said I, that I can name one, and a great sinner too, 
who went into bliss without any vjsit to purgatory. Name 
him if you can, replied my querist. What think you of the 
thief upon the cross, said I, to whom our dying Saviour 
said, Hodie eris mecum in paradiso ? At which being silenced, 
though not convicted, he turned from me in a violent rage, 
and left me to myself. 

What increased my first suspicion of him was, that a very 
short time after, my friend the provincial sent to speak with 
me; and repeating all passages between the holy spy and 
me, assured me that he had been forced to argue in my 
favour, and tell him that I had said nothing but well : For, 
says he, all ought to have the holy Jesus crucified in their 
hearts. Nevertheless, continued he, it is a commendable and 
good thing to have him represented in the highways. For 
suppose, said he, a man was going upon some base or profligate 
design, the very sight of a crucified Saviour may happen to 
subvert his resolution, and deter him from committing theft, 
murder, or any other of the deadly sins. And thus ended 
that conference. 

I remember, upon some other occasional conversation after, 
the provincial told me, that in the Carmelite nunnery next to 



412 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

his convent, and under his care, there was a nun that was 
daughter to Don Juan of Austria; if so, her age must render 
her venerable as her quality. 

Taking notice one day, that all the people of the place 
fetched their water from a well without the town, although 
they had many seemingly as good within, I spoke to Don 
Felix of it, who gave me, under the seal of secrecy, this 
reason for it : When the seat of the war, said he, lay in these 
parts, the French train of artillery was commonly quartered 
in this place ; the officers and soldiers of which were so very 
rampant and rude, in attempting to debauch our women, that 
there is not a well within the town which has not some 
Frenchmen's bones at the bottom of it ; therefore the natives, 
who are sensible of it, choose rather to go farther afield. 

By this well there runs a little rivulet, which gives head 
to that famous river called the Gruadiana ; which running for 
some leagues under ground, affords a pretence for the natives 
to boast of a bridge on which they feed many thousands of 
sheep. When it rises again, it is a fine large river,and, after 
a currency of many leagues, empties itself into the Atlantic 
ocean. 

As to military affairs, Almanar and Saragosa were victories 
so complete, that nobody made the least doubt of their settling 
the crown of Spain upon the head of Charles III. without a 
rival. This was not barely the opinion of his friends, but his 
very enemies resigned all hope or expectation in favour of 
King Philip. The Castilians, his most faithful friends, enter- 
tained no other imagination ; for, after they had advised, and 
prevailed that the queen with the prince of Asturias should 
be sent to Victoria, under the same despondency, and a full 
dispiritedness, they gave him so little encouragement to stay 
in Madrid, that he immediately quitted the place, with a 
resolution to retire into his grandfather's dominions, the place 
of his nativity. 

In his way to which, even on the last day's journey, it was 
his great good fortune to meet the Duke of Vendosme, with 
some few troops, which his grandfather Louis XIV. of France 
had ordered to his succour, under that duke's command. 
The duke was grievously affected at such an unexpected 
catastrophe ; nevertheless, he left nothing unsaid or undone, 
that might induce that prince to turn back ; and at length 
prevailing, after a little rest, and a great deal of patience, by 



VISIT TO THE CHAPEL OF THE LADY DE ATOCHA. 413 

the coming in of his scattered troops, and some few he could 
raise, together with those the duke brought with him, he 
once more saw himself at the head of twenty thousand men. 

While things were in this manner, under motion in King 
Philip's favour, Charles III., with his victorious army, 
advances forward, and enters into Madrid, of which he made 
General Stanhope governor. And even here the Castilians 
gave full proof of their fidelity to their prince ; even at the 
time when, in their opinion, his affairs were past all hopes of 
retrieve, they themselves having, by their advice, contributed 
to his retreat. Instead of prudential acclamations therefore, 
such as might have answered the expectations of a victorious 
prince, now entering into their capital, their streets were all 
in a profound silence, their balconies unadorned with costly 
carpets, as was customary on like occasions ; and scarce an 
inhabitant to be seen in either shop or window. 

This, doubtless, was no little mortification to a conquering 
prince ; however, his generals were wise enough to keep him 
from showing any other tokens of resentment, than marching 
through the city with unconcern, and taking up his quarters 
at Villaverda, about a league from it. 

Nevertheless, King Charles visited, in his march, the chapel 
of the Lady de Atocha, where finding several English colours 
and standards, taken in the battle of Almanza, there hung 
up, he ordered them to be taken down, and restored them to 
the English general. 

It was the current opinion then, and almost universal con- 
sent has since confirmed it, that the falsest step in that whole 
war, was this advancement of King Charles to Madrid. 
After those two remarkable victories at Almanar and Sara- 
gosa, had he directed his march to Pampeluna, and obtained 
possession of that place, or some other near it, he had not 
only stopt all succours from coming out of France, but he 
would, in a great measure, have prevented the gathering 
together of any of the routed and dispersed forces of King 
Philip ; and it was the general notion of the Spaniards I 
conversed with while at Madrid, that had King Philip once 
again set his foot upon French land, Spain would never have 
been brought to have re-acknowledged him. 

King Charles with his army having stayed some time about 
Madrid, and seeing his expectations of the Castilians joining 
him not at all answered, at last resolved to decamp, and 



414 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

return to Saragosa. Accordingly, with a very few troops, 
that prince advanced thither ; while the main body, under 
the. command of the Generals Stanhope and Staremberg, 
passing under the very walls of Madrid, held on their march 
towards Arragon. 

After about three days' march, general Stanhope took up 
his quarters at Breuhiga, a small town half walled ; General 
Staremberg marching three leagues farther, to Cifuentes. 
This choice of situation of the two several armies, not a little 
puzzled the politicians ot those times ; who could very 
indifferently account for the English general's lying exposed 
in an open town, with his few English forces, of which 
General Harvey's regiment of fine horse might be deemed the 
main, and General Staremberg encamping three leagues 
farther off the enemy. But to see the vicissitudes of fortune, 
to which the actions of the bravest, by an untoward sort of 
fatality, are often forced to contribute ! none who had been 
eyewitnesses of the bravery of either of those generals at the 
battles of Almanar and Saragosa, could find room to call in 
question either their conduct or their courage ; and yet in this 
march, and this encampment, will appear a visible ill conse- 
quence to the affairs of the interest they fought for. 

The Duke of Vendosme having increased the forces which 
he brought from France to upwards of twenty thousand men, 
marches by Madrid directly for Breuhiga, where his intelli- 
gence informed him General Stanhope lay; and that so 
secretly, as well as swiftly, that that general knew nothing 
of it, nor could be persuaded to believe it, till the very 
moment their bullets from the enemy's cannon convinced him 
of the truth. Breuhiga, I have said, was walled only on one 
side, and yet on that very side the enemy made their attack. 
But what could a handful do against a force so much superior, 
though they had not been in want of both powder and ball ; 
and in want of these, were forced to make use of stones 
against all sorts of ammunition which the enemy plied them 
with ? The consequence answered the deficiency ; they were 
all made prisoners ot war, and Harvey's regiment of horse 
among the rest ; which, to augment their calamity, was 
immediately remounted by the enemy, and marched along 
with their army to attack General Staremberg. 

That general had heard somewhat of the march of Vendosme, 
and waited with some impatience to have the confirmation oi- 



BATTLE A£ VILLA VICIOSA. 415 

it from General Stanhope, who lay between, and whom lie 
lay under an expectation of being joined with ; however, he 
thought it not improper to make some little advance towards 
him : and accordingly, breaking up from his camp at Cifu- 
entes, he came back to Villa Viciosa, a little town between 
Cifuentes and Breuhiga. There he found Vendosme ready 
to attack him, before he could well be prepared for him, but 
no English to join him, as he had expected; nevertheless, 
the battle was hot, and obstinately fought ; although Starem- 
berg had visibly the advantage, having beat the enemy at 
least a league from their cannon ; at which time, hearing of 
the misfortune of Breuhiga, and finding himself thereby frus- 
trated of those expected succours to support him, he made a 
handsome retreat to Barcelona, which in common calculation 
is about a hundred leagues, without any disturbance of an 
enemy, that seemed glad to be rid of him. Nevertheless, 
his baggage having faller into the hands of the enemy, at the 
beginning of the fight, King Philip and the Duke of Ven- 
dosme generously returned it unopened, and untouched, in 
acknowledgment of his brave behaviour. 

I had like to have omitted one material passage, which I 
was very credibly informed of; that General Carpenter 
offered to have gone, and have joined General Staremberg 
with the horse, which was refused him. This was certainly 
an oversight of the highest nature ; since his going would 
have strengthened Staremberg almost to the assurance of an 
entire victory ; whereas his stay was of no manner of service, 
but quite the contrary : for, as I said before, the enemy, by 
remounting the English horse (which perhaps were the com- 
pletest of any regiment in the world), turned, if I may be 
allowed the expression, the strength of our artillery upon our 
allies. 



416 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 



CHAPTER IX. 

BULL-FIGHT AT LA MANCHA TEMPERANCE AND BIGOTRY OF 

THE SPANIARDS RESERVE CUSTOM OF GENTLEMEN IN 

COMPANY WITH LADIES WRETCHED MUSIC, EXCEPT AT 

VALENCIA MUSIC AT EXECUTIONS SINGULAR APPEAL OF 

A CLERGYMAN TO CONSCIENCE, AND VERY INTERESTING 
CONCLUSION. 

Upon this retreat of Staremberg, and the surprise at Breu- 
higa, there were great rejoicings at Madrid, and everywhere 
else, where King Philip's interest prevailed. And indeed it 
might be said, from that day the interest of King Charles 
looked with a very lowering aspect. I was still a prisoner 
at La Mancha, when this news arrived ; and very sensibly 
affected at that strange turn of fortune. I was in bed when 
the express passed through the town, in order to convey it 
farther ; and in the middle of the night I heard a certain 
Spanish Don, with whom, a little before, I had had some 
little variance, thundering at my door, endeavouring to burst 
it open, with, as I had reason to suppose, no very favourable 
design upon me. But my landlady, who hitherto had always 
been kind and careful, calling Don Felix and some others of 
my friends together, saved me from the fury of his designs, 
whatever they were. 

Among other expressions of the general joy upon this 
occasion, there was a bull-feast at La Mancha ; which being 
much beyond what I saw at Valencia, I shall here give a 
description of. These bull-feasts are not so common now in 
Spain as formerly, King Philip not taking much delight in 
them. Nevertheless, as soon as it was published here, that 
there was to be one, no other discourse was heard ; and in 
the talk of the bulls, and the great preparations for the feast, 
men seemed to have lost, or to have laid aside, all thoughts 
of the very occasion. A week's time was allowed for the 
building of stalls for the beasts, and scaffolds for the spec- 
tators, and other necessary preparations for the setting off 
their joy with the most suitable splendour. 

On the day appointed for the bringing the bulls into town, 



BULL FEASTS. 417 

the cavalieroes mounted their horses, and with spears in their 
hands, rode out of town about a league, or somewhat more, 
to meet them : if any of the bulls break from the drove, and 
make an excursion (as they -frequently do), the cavaliero 
that can make him return again to his station among his com- 
panions, is held in honour, suitable to the dexterity and ad- 
dress he performs it with. On their entrance into the town, 
all the windows are filled with spectators ; a pope passing in 
grand procession could not have more ; for what can be more 
than all ? And he, or she, who should neglect so rare a show, 
would give occasion to have his or her legitamacy called in 
question. 

When they came to the Plaza, where the stalls and scaf* 
folds are built, and upon which the feats of chivalry are to 
be performed, it is often with a great deal of difficulty that the 
brutes are got in ; for there are twelve stalls, one for every 
bull, and as their number grows less by the installing of some, 
the remainder often prove more untractable and unruly % in 
these stalls they are kept very dark, to render them fiercer 
for the day of battle. 

On the first of the days appointed (for a bull-feast com- 
monly lasts three), all the gentry of the place, or near adja- 
cent, resort to the Plaza in their most gaudy apparel, every 
one vying in making the most glorious appearance. Those 
in the lower ranks provide themselves with spears, or a great 
many small darts in their hands, which they fail not to cast 
or dart, whenever the bull, by his nearness, gives them an 
opportunity. So that the poor creature may be said to fight, 
not only with the tauriro (or bull-hunter, a person always 
hired for that purpose), but with the whole multitude, in the 
lower class at least. 

All being seated, the uppermost door is opened first ; and 
as soon as ever the bull perceives the light, out he comes, 
snuffing up the air, and staring about him, as if in admiration 
of his attendants ; and with his tail cocked up, he spurns the 
ground with his fore feet, as if he intended a challenge to 
his yet unappearing antagonist. Then, at a door appointed 
for that purpose, enters the tauriro all in white, holding a 
cloak in one hand, and a sharp two-edged sword in the other. 
The bull no sooner sets eyes upon him, but, wildly staring, 
he moves gently towards him; then gradually mends his 
pace, till he is come within about the space of twenty yards 

VOL. II. E E 



418 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

of the tauriro ; when, with a sort of spring, he makes at him 
with all his might. The tauriro, knowing by frequent expe- 
rience, that it behoves him to be watchful, slips aside just 
when the bull is at him ; when casting his cloak over his 
horns, at the same moment he gives him a slash or two, 
always aiming at the neck, where there is one particular 
place, which if he hit, he knows he shall easily bring him to 
the ground. I myself observed the truth of this experiment 
made upon one of the bulls, who received no more than one 
cut, which happening upon the fatal spot, so stunned him, 
that he remained perfectly stupid, the blood flowing out from 
the wound, till, after a violent trembling, he dropt down stone 
dead. 

But this rarely happens, and the poor creature oftener re- 
ceives many wounds, and numberless darts, before he dies. 
Yet whenever he feels a fresh wound, either from dart, spear, 
or sword, his rage receives addition from the wound, and he 
pursues his tauriro with an increase of fury and violence. 
And as often as he makes at his adversary, the tauriro takes 
care, with the utmost of his agility, to avoid him, and reward 
his kind intention with a new wound. 

Some of their bulls will play their parts much better than 
others ; but the best must die. For when they have behaved 
themselves with all the commendable fury possible, if the 
tauriro is spent, and fail of doing execution upon him, they 
set dogs upon him ; hough him, and stick him all over with 
darts, till, with very loss of blood, he puts an end to their 
present cruelty. 

When dead, a man brings in two mules dressed out with 
belts and feathers, and, fastening a rope about his horns, draws 
off the bull with shouts and acclamations of the spectators, as 
if the infidels had been drove from before Ceuta. 

I had almost forgot another very common piece of 
barbarous pleasure at these diversions. The tauriro will 
sometimes stick one of their bull-spears fast in the ground, 
aslant, but levelled as near as he can at his chest ; then pre- 
senting himself to the bull, just before the point of the spear, 
on his taking his run at the tauriro, which, as they assured 
me, he always does with his eyes closed, the tauriro slips on 
one side, and the poor creature runs with a violence often to 
stick himself, and sometimes to break the spear in his chesty 
running away with part of it till he drop. 



BULL FEASTS. 419 

This tauriro was accounted one of the best in Spain ; and 
indeed I saw him mount the back of one of the bulls, and ride 
on him, slashing and cutting, till he had quite wearied him ; 
at which time dismounting, he killed him with much ease, 
and to the acclamatory satisfaction of the whole concourse : 
for variety of cruelty, as well as dexterity, administers to their 
delight. 

The tauriroes are very well paid, and, in truth, so they 
ought to be ; for they often lose their lives in the diversion, 
as this did the year after in the way of his calling. Yet it is 
a service of very great profit when they perform dexterously : 
for, whenever they do anything remarkable, deserving the 
notice of the spectators, they never fail of a generous 
gratification, money being thrown down to them in plenty. 

This feast (as they generally do) lasted three days ; the last 
of which was, in my opinion, much before either of the others. 
On this, a young gentleman, whose name was Don Pedro 
Ortega, a person of great quality, performed the exercise on 
horseback. The seats, if not more crowded, were filled with 
people of better fashion, who came from places at a distance 
to grace the noble tauriro. 

He was finely mounted, and made a very graceful figure : 
but as, when the foot tauriro engages, the bull first enters ; so 
in this contest, the cavaliero always makes his appearance on 
the Plaza before the bull. His steed was a maneged horse ; 
mounted on which, he made his entry, attended by four foot- 
men in rich liveries ; who, as soon as their master had rid 
round, and paid his devoirs to all the spectators, withdrew 
from the dangers they left him exposed to. The cavaliero 
having thus made his bows, and received the repeated vivas 
of that vast concourse, marched with a very stately air to the 
very middle of the Plaza, there standing ready to receive his 
enemy at coming out. 

The door being opened, the bull appeared ; and as I thought 
with a fiercer and more threatening aspect than any of the 
former. He stared around him for a considerable time, 
snuffing up the air, and spurning the ground, without in the 
least taking notice of his antagonist. But, at last, fixing his 
eyes upon him, he made a full run at the cavaliero, which he 
most dexterously avoided, and, at the same moment of time, 
passing by, he cast a dart that stuck in his shoulders. At this, 
the shouts and vivas were repeated ; and I observed a hand- 

e e 2 



420 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

kerchief waved twice or thrice, which, as I afterwards under- 
stood, was a signal from the ladj of his affections, that she had 
beheld him with satisfaction. I took notice, that the cavaliero 
endeavoured all he could to keep aside the bull, for the 
advantage of the stroke ; when, putting his horse on a full 
career, he threw another dart, which fixed in his side, and so 
enraged the beast, that he seemed to renew his attacks with 
greater fury. The cavaliero had behaved himself to admiration, 
and escaped many dangers, with the often repeated acclamations 
of viva, viva; when, at last, the enraged creature getting his 
horns between the horse's hinder legs, man and horse came 
both together to the ground. 

I expected at that moment nothing less than death could be 
the issue ; when, to the general surprise, as well as mine, the 
very civil brute, author of all the mischief, only withdrew to 
the other side of the Plaza, where he stood still, staring about 
him as if he knew nothing of the matter. 

The cavaliero was carried off not much hurt, but his delicate 
beast suffered much more. However, I could not but think 
afterward, that the good-natured bull came short of fair play. 
If I may be pardoned the expression, he had used his adversary 
with more humanity than he met with ; at least, since, after 
he had the cavaliero under, he generously forsook him, I think 
he might have pleaded, or others for him, for better treatment 
than he after met with. 

For, as the cavaliero was disabled and carried off, the foot 
tauriro entered in white accoutrements, as before; but he 
flattered himself with an easier conquest than he found. 
There is always on these occasions, when he apprehends any 
imminent danger, a place of retreat ready for the foot tauriro ; 
and well for him there was so ; this bull obliged him over and 
over to make use of it. Nor was he able at last to despatch 
him, without a general assistance ; for I believe I speak 
within compass, when I say, he had more than a hundred 
darts stuck in him. And so barbarously was he mangled and 
slashed besides, that, in my mind, I could not but think King 
Philip in the right, when he said, That it was a custom 
deserved little encouragement. 

Soon after this tauridore, or bull-feast, was over, I had a 
mind to take a pleasant walk to a little town, called Minai, 
about three leagues off; but I was scarce got out of La 
Mancha, when an acquaintance meeting me, asked where I 



TEMPEEANCE OF THE PEOPLE AT LA MANCHA. 421 

was going ? I told him to Minai ; when, taking me by the 
hand, Friend G-orgio, says he in Spanish, come back with me ; 
you shall not go a stride farther ; there are Picarons that 
way ; you shall not go. Inquiring, as we went back, into his 
meaning, he told me, that the day before, a man, who had 
received a sum of money in pistoles at La Mancha, was, on 
the road, set upon by some, who had got notice of it, and 
murdered him ; that, not finding the money expected about 
him (for he had cautiously enough left it in a friend's hands at 
La Mancha), they concluded he had swallowed it ; and there- 
fore they ript up his belly, and opened every gut ; but all to 
as little purpose. This diverted my walk for that time. 

But, some little time after, the same person inviting me 
over to the same place, to see his melon-grounds, which in 
that country are wonderful fine and pleasant, I accepted his 
invitation, and, under the advantage of his company, went 
thither. On the road, I took notice of a cross newly erected, 
and a multitude of small stones around the foot of it : asking 
the meaning whereof, my friend told me, that it was raised 
for a person there murdered (as is the custom throughout 
Spain), and that every good catholic, passing by, held it his 
duty to cast a stone upon the place, in detestation of the 
murder. I had often before taken notice of many such 
crosses ; but never till then knew the meaning of their 
erection, or the reason of the heaps of stones around them. 

There is no place in all Spain more famous for good wine 
than Sainte Clemente de la Mancha ; nor is it anywhere sold 
cheaper ; for, as it is only an inland town, near no navigable 
river, and the people temperate to a proverb, great plenty, and 
a small vend, must consequently make it cheap. The wine 
here is so famous, that, when I came to Madrid, I saw wrote 
over the doors of most houses that sold wine, Vino Sainte 
Clemente. As to the temperance of the people, I must say, 
that, notwithstanding those two excellent qualities of good 
and cheap, I never saw, all the three years I was prisoner 
there, any one person overcome with drinking. 

It is true, there may be a reason, and a political one, 
assigned for that abstemiousness of theirs, which is this, that 
if any man, upon any occasion, should be brought in as an 
evidence against you, if you can prove that he was ever drunk, 
it will invalidate his whole evidence. I could not but think 
this a grand improvement upon the Spartans. They made 



422 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

their slaves purposely drunk, to show their youth the folly of 
the vice by the sottish behaviour of their servants under it : 
but they never reached to that noble height of laying a 
penalty upon the aggressor, or of discouraging a voluntary 
impotence of reason by a disreputable impotence of interest. 
The Spaniard, therefore, in my opinion, in this exceeds the 
Spartan, as much as a natural beauty exceeds one procured 
by art ; for, though shame may somewhat influence some few, 
terror is of force to deter all. A man, we have seen it, may 
shake hands with shame ; but interest, says another proverb, 
will never lie. A wise institution, therefore, doubtless is this 
of the Spaniard ; but such as I fear will never take place in 
Germany, Holland, France, or Great Britain. 

But though I commend their temperance, I would not be 
thought by any means to approve of their bigotry. If there 
may be such a thing as intemperance in religion, I much fear 
their ebriety in that will be found to be over-measure. Under 
the notion of devotion, I have seen men among them, and of 
sense too, guilty of the grossest intemperances. It is too 
common to be a rarity, to see their Dons of the prime quality, 
as well as those of the lower ranks, upon meeting a priest in 
the open streets, condescend to take up the lower part of his 
vestment, and salute it with eyes erected, as if they looked 
upon it as the seal of salvation. 

When the Ave-bell is heard, the hearer must down on his 
knees upon the very spot ; nor is he allowed the small 
indulgence of deferring a little, till he can recover a clean 
place ; dirtiness excuses not, nor will dirty actions by any 
means exempt. This is so notorious, that even at the play- 
house, in the middle of a scene, on the first sound of the bell, 
the actors drop their discourse ; the auditors supersede the 
indulging of their unsanctified ears, and all, on their knees, 
bend their tongues, if not their hearts, quite a different way 
to what they just before had been employed in. In short, 
though they pretend in all this to an extraordinary measure 
of zeal and real devotion, no man, that lives among them any 
time, can be a proselyte to them without immolating his senses 
and his reason : yet I must confess, while I have seen them 
thus deluding themselves with Ave Marias, I could not refrain 
throwing up my eyes to the only proper object of adoration, 
in commiseration of such delusions. 

The hours of the Ave-bell, are eight and twelve in the 



ADORATION AT THE AVE-BELL. 423 

morning, and six in the evening. They pretend, at the first, 
to fall down to beg that God would be pleased to prosper 
them in all things they go about that day. At twelve they 
return thanks for their preservation to that time ; and at six, 
for that of the whole day. After which, one would think that 
they imagine themselves at perfect liberty ; and their open 
gallantries perfectly countenance the imagination : for, though 
adultery is looked upon as a grievous crime, and punished 
accordingly, yet fornication is softened with the title of a 
venial sin, and they seem to practise it under that persuasion. 

I found here, what Erasmus ridicules with so much wit 
and delicacy, the custom of burying in a Franciscan's habit, 
in mighty request. If they can for that purpose procure an 
old one at the price of a new one, the purchaser will look 
upon himself a provident chap, that has secured to his 
deceased friend or relation, no less than heaven by that wise 
bargain. . 

The evening being almost the only time of enjoyment of 
company, or conversation, everybody in Spain then greedily 
seeks it ; and the streets are at that time crowded like our 
finest gardens, or most private walks. On one of those occa- 
sions, I met a Don of my acquaintance walking out with his 
sisters ; and, as I thought it became an English cavalier, I 
saluted him: but, to my surprise, he never returned the civility. 
When I met him the day after, instead of an apology, as I 
had flattered myself, I received a reprimand, though a very 
civil one ; telling me, it was not the custom in Spain, nor 
well taken of any one, that took notice of any who were 
walking in the company of ladies at night. 

But, a night or two after, I found, by experience, that, if 
the men were by custom prohibited taking notice, women 
were not. I was standing at the door, in the cool of the 
evening, when a woman, seemingly genteel, passing by, 
called me by my name, telling me she wanted to speak with 
me : she had her mantilio on ; so that, had I had daylight, 
I could have only seen one eye of her. However, I walked 
with her a good while, without being able to discover 
anything of her business, nor passed there between us 
anything more than a conversation upon indifferent matters. 
Nevertheless, at parting, she told me she should pass by again 
the next evening ; and if I would be at the door, she would 
give me the same advanatge of a conversation, that seemed 



424 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

not to displease me. Accordingly, the next night she came, 
and, as before, we walked together in the privatest parts of 
the town : for, though I knew her not, her discourse was 
always entertaining and full of wit, and her inquiries not 
often improper. We had continued this intercourse many 
nights together, when my landlady's daughter, having taken 
notice of it, stopt me one evening, and would not allow me 
to stand at the usual post of intelligence, saying, with a good 
deal of heat, Don Grorgio, take my advice ; go no more along 
with that woman ; you may soon be brought home deprived 
of your life, if you do. I cannot say whether she knew her ; 
but this I must say, she was very agreeable in wit, as well as 
person. However, my landlady and her daughter took that 
opportunity of giving me so many instances of the fatal issues 
of such innocent conversations (for I could not call it an 
intrigue), that, apprehensive enough of the danger, on laying 
circumstances together, I took their advice, and never went 
into her company after. 

Sainte Clemente de la Mancha, where I so long remained 
a prisoner of war, lies in the road from Madrid to Valencia ; 
and the Duke of Vendosme being ordered to the latter, great 
preparations were being made for his entertainment, as he 
passed through. He stayed here only one night, where he 
was very handsomely treated by the corregidore. He was a 
tall fair person, and very fat, and at the time I saw him wore 
a long black patch over his left eye ; but on what occasion I 
could not learn. The afterwards famous Alberoni (since 
made a cardinal), was in his attendance ; as, indeed, the 
duke was very rarely without him. I remember that very 
day three weeks, they returned through the very same place ; 
the duke in his hearse, and Alberoni in a coach, paying his 
last duties. That duke was a prodigious lover of fish, of 
which having eat over-heartily at Veneros, in the province 
of Valencia, he took a surfeit, and died in three days' time. 
His corpse was carrying to the Escurial, there to be buried 
in the Pantheon among their kings. 

The Castilians have a privilege, by license from the pope, 
which, if it could have been converted into a prohibition, 
might have saved that duke's life : in regard their country 
is wholly inland, and the river Tagus, famous for its poverty, 
or rather barrenness, their Holy Father indulges the natives 
with the liberty, in lieu of that dangerous eatable, of eating 



JEALOUSY OF TRUEBORN SPANIARDS. 425 

all Lent-time the inwards of cattle. When I first heard this 
related, I imagined, that the garbage had been intended; 
but I was soon after thus rectified, — by inwards (for so 
expressly says the license itself), is meant the heart, the liver, 
and the feet. 

They have here, as well as in the most other parts of Spain, 
Valencia excepted, the most wretched music in the universe. 
Their guitars, if not their sole, are their darling instruments, 
and what they most delight in : though, in my opinion, our 
English sailors are not much amiss in giving them the title 
of strum-strums. They are little better than our jews'-harp, 
though hardly half so musical. Yet are they perpetually at 
nights disturbing their women with the noise of them, under 
the notion and name of serenadoes. From the barber to the 
grandee the infection spreads, and very often with the same 
attendant, danger ; night quarrels and rencounters being the 
frequent result. The trueborn Spaniards reckon it a part 
of their glory, to be jealous of their mistresses, which is too 
often the forerunner of murders ; or at best, attended with 
many other very dangerous inconveniences. And yet, bad as 
their music is, their dancing is the reverse. I have seen a 
country girl manage her castanets with the graceful air of a 
duchess, and that not to common music, but to people's 
beating or drumming a tune with their hands on a table. I 
have seen half a dozen couple at a time dance to the like in 
excellent order. 

I just now distinguished, by an exception, the music of 
Valencia, where alone I experienced the use of the violin ; 
which, though I cannot, in respect to other countries, call 
good, yet, in respect to the other parts of Spain, I must 
acknowledge it much the best. In my account of that 
city, I omitted to speak of it ; therefore now, to supply that 
defect, I will speak of the best I heard, which was on this 
unfortunate occasion : several natives of that country, having 
received sentence of death for their adherence to King 
Charles, were accordingly ordered to the place of execution. 
It is the custom there, on all such occasions, for all the 
music of the city to meet near the gallows, and play the 
most affecting and melancholy airs, to the very approach of 
the condemned ; and really the music was so moving, it 
heightened the scene of sorrow, and brought compassion into 
the eyes even of enemies. 



426 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

As to the condemned, they came stript of their own clothes, 
and covered with black frocks, in which they were led along 
the streets to the place of execution, the friars praying all 
the way. When they came through any street, where any 
public images were fixed, they stayed before them some 
reasonable time in prayer with the friars. When they 
are arrived at the fatal place, those fathers leave them not, 
but continue praying and giving them ghostly encourage- 
ment, standing upon the rounds of the ladder till they are 
turned off. The hangman always wears a silver badge of a 
ladder to distinguish his profession : but his manner of 
executing his office had somewhat in it too singular to allow 
of silence. When he had tied fast the hands of the criminal, 
he rested his knee upon them, and with one hand on the 
criminal's nostrils, to stop his breath the sooner, threw 
himself off the ladder along with the dying party. This he 
does to expedite his fate ; though, considering the force, I 
wonder it does not tear head and body asunder : which yet I 
never heard that it did. 

But, to return to La Mancha : — I had been there now 
upwards of two years, much diverted with the good humour 
and kindness of the gentlemen, and daily pleased with the 
conversation of the nuns of the nunnery opposite to my 
lodgings ; when, walking one day alone upon the Plaza, I 
found myself accosted by a clerico. At the first attack, he 
told me his country ; but added, that he now came from 
Madrid with a Potent (that was his word), from Pedro de 
Dios, dean of the inquisition, to endeavour the conversion of 
any of the English prisoners ; that being an Irishman, as a 
sort of a brother, he had conceived a love for the English, and 
therefore more eagerly embraced the opportunity, which the 
holy inquisition had put into his hands, for the bringing over 
to mother church as many heretics as he could ; that, having 
heard a very good character of me, he should think himself 
very happy, if he could be instrumental in my salvation : It 
is very true, continued he, I have lately had the good fortune 
to convert many ; and besides the candour of my own 
disposition, I must tell you, that I have a peculiar knack at 
conversion, which very few, if any, ever could resist. I am 
going upon the same work into Murcia; but your good 
character has fixed me in my resolution of preferring your 
salvation to that of others. 



SINGULAR CONDUCT OF A CLERICO. 427 

To this very long, and no less surprising address, I only- 
returned, that it being an affair of moment, it would require 
some consideration ; and that by the time he returned from 
Murcia, I might be able to return him a proper answer. 
But not at all satisfied with this reply ; Sir, says he, G-od 
Almighty is all sufficient : this moment is too precious to be 
lost ; he can turn the heart in the twinkling of an eye, as 
well as in twenty years. Hear me then ; mind what I say to 
you : I will convince you immediately. You heretics do not 
believe in transubstantiation, and yet did not our Saviour 
say in so many words, Hoc est corpus meum f And if you do 
not believe him, do not you give him the lie ? Besides, does 
not one of the fathers say, Deus, qui est omnis Veritas, non potest 
dicere falsum ? He went on at the same ridiculous rate ; 
which soon convinced me that he was a thorough rattle. 
However, as a clerico, and consequently, in this country, a 
man dangerous to disoblige, I invited him home to dinner ; 
where, when I had brought him, I found I had no way done 
an unacceptable thing ; for my landlady and her daughter, 
seeing him to be a clergyman, received him with a vast deal 
of respect and pleasure. 

Dinner being over, he began to entertain me with a detail 
of the many wonderful conversions he had made upon obstinate 
heretics ; that he had convinced the most stubborn, and had 
such a nostrum, that he would undertake to convert any one. 
Here he began his old round, intermixing his harangue with 
such scraps and raw sentences of fustian Latin, that I grew 
weary of his conversation ; so, pretending some business of 
consequence, I took leave, and left him and my landlady 
together. 

I did not return till pretty late in the evening with intent 
to give him time enough to think his own visit tedious ; but, 
to my great surprise, I found my Irish missionary still on the 
spot, ready to dare me to the encounter, and resolved, like a 
true son of the church militant, to keep last in the field of 
battle. As soon as I had seated myself, he began again to 
tell me how good a character my landlady had given me, 
which had prodigiously increased his ardour of saving my 
soul ; that he could not answer it to his own character, as 
well as mine, to be negligent ; and therefore he had entered 
into a resolution to stay my coming, though it had been 
later. To all which, I returned him abundance of thanks for 



428 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

his good will, but pleading indisposition and want of rest, 
after a good deal of civil impertinence, I once more got rid of 
him ; at least, I took my leave, and went to bed, leaving him 
again master of the field ; for I understood next morning, that 
he stayed some time after I was gone, with my good landlady. 

Next morning, the nuns of the nunnery opposite, having 
taken notice of the clerico's ingress, long visit, and late 
egress, sent to know whether he was my countryman ; with 
many other questions, which I was not then let into the secret 
of. To all which I returned, that he was no countryman of 
mine, but an Irishman, and so perfectly a stranger to me, 
that I knew no more of him than what I had from his own 
mouth, that he was going into Murcia. What the meaning 
of this inquiry was I could never learn ; but I could not 
doubt, but it proceeded from their great care of their vicino, 
as they called me ; a mark of their esteem, and of which I 
was not a little proud. 

As was my usual custom, I had been taking my morning 
walk, and had not been long come home in order to dinner, 
when in again drops my Irish clerico : I was confounded, 
and vexed, and he could not avoid taking notice of it ; never- 
theless, without the least alteration of countenance, he took 
his seat ; and on my saying, in a cold and indifferent tone, 
that I imagined he had been got to Murcia, before this ; he 
replied, with a natural fleer, that truly he was going to 
Murcia, but his conscience pricked him, and he did find that 
he could not go away with any satisfaction, or peace of mind, 
without making me a perfect convert ; that he had plainly 
discovered in me a good disposition, and had, for that very 
reason, put himself to the charge of man and mule, to the 
Bishop of Cuenca for a license, under his hand, for my con- 
version : for in Spain, all private missionaries are obliged to 
ask leave of the next bishop, before they dare enter upon any 
enterprise of this nature. 

I was more confounded at this last assurance of the man 
than at all before ; and it put me directly upon reflecting, 
whether any, and what inconveniences might ensue, from a 
rencounter that I at first conceived ridiculous, but might now 
reasonably begin to have more dangerous apprehensions of. I 
knew^ by the articles of war, all persons are exempted from any 
power of the inquisition ; but whether carrying on a part in 
such a farce, might not admit, or at least be liable to some 



INDECENT BEHAVIOUR OF THE CLERICO. 429 

dangerous construction, was not imprudently now to be con- 
sidered. Though I was not fearful, yet I resolved to be 
cautious. Wherefore, not making any answer to his declara- 
tion about the bishop, he took notice of it ; and, to raise a 
confidence he found expiring, began to tell me, that his name 
was Murtough Brennan, that he was born near Kilkenny of 
a very considerable family. This last part indeed, when I 
came to Madrid, I found pretty well confirmed in a consider- 
able manner. However, taking notice that he had altered his 
tone of leaving the town, and that, instead of it, he was ad- 
vancing somewhat like an invitation of himself to dinner the 
next day, I resolved to show myself shy of him ; and thereupon 
abruptly, and without taking my leave, I left the room, and 
my landlady and him together. 

Three or four days had passed, every one of which he never 
failed my lodgings ; not at dinner time only, but night -and 
morning too ; from all which I began to suspect, that, instead 
of my conversion, he had fixed upon a reconversion of my 
landlady. She was not young, yet, for a black woman, hand- 
some enough ; and her daughter very pretty ; I entered into 
a resolution to make my c bservations, and watch them all at 
a distance ; nevertheless carefully concealing my jealousy. 
However, I must confess, I was not a little pleased, that any- 
thing could divert my own persecution. He was now no 
longer my guest, but my landlady's, with whom I found him so 
much taken up, that a little care might frustrate all his former 
impertinent importunities on the old topic. 

But all my suspicions were very soon after turned into 
certainties in this manner : I had been abroad, and returning 
somewhat weary, I went to my chamber, to take, what in 
that country they call, a cesto, upon my bed : I got in unseen 
or without seeing anybody, but had scarce laid myself down, 
before my young landlady, as I jestingly used to call the 
daughter, rushing into my room, threw herself down on the 
floor, bitterly exclaiming. I started off my bed, and imme- 
diately running to the door, who should I meet there but my 
Irish clerico, without his habit, and in his shirt ? I could not 
doubt, by the dishabille of the clerico, but the young creature 
had reason enough for her passion, which rendered me quite 
unable to master mine ; wherefore, as he stood with his back 
next the door. I thrust him in that ghostly plight into tha 
open street. 



430 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

I might, with leisure enough, have repented that precipitate 
piece of indiscretion, if it had not been for his bad character, 
and the favourable opinion the town had conceived of me ; 
for he inordinately exclaimed against me, calling me heretic, 
and telling the people, who were soon gathered round him, 
that, coming to my lodgings on the charitable work of con- 
version, I had thus abused him, stript him of his habit, and 
then turned him out of doors. The nuns, on their hearing 
the outcries he made, came running to their grates, to inquire 
into the matter; and when they, understood it, as he was 
pleased to relate it, though they condemned my zeal, they 
pitied my condition. Very well was it for me, that I stood 
more than a little well in the good opinion of the town ; 
among the gentry, by my frequent conversation, and the in- 
ferior sort by my charitable distributions ; for nothing can be 
more dangerous, or a nearer way to violent fate, than to in- 
sult one of the clergy in Spain, and especially for such an one 
as they entitle a heretic. 

My old landlady (I speak in respect to her daughter), how- 
ever formerly my seeming friend, came in a violent passion, 
and, wrenching the door out of my hands, opened it, and 
pulled her clerico in ; and, so soon as she had done this, she 
took his part, and railed so bitterly at me, that I had no 
reason longer to doubt her thorough conversion, under the 
full power of his mission. However, the young one stood 
her ground, and, by all her expressions, gave her many in- 
quirers reason enough to believe, all was not matter of faith 
that the clerico had advanced. Nevertheless, holding it ad- 
visable to change my lodgings, and a friend confirming my 
resolutions, I removed that night. 

The clerico, having put on his upper garments, was run 
away to the corregidore, in a violent fury, resolving to be 
early, as well knowing, that he, who tells his story first, has 
the prospect of telling it to double advantage. When he came 
there, he told that officer a thousand idle stories, and in the 
worst manner ; repeating how I had abused him, and not him 
only, but my poor landlady, for taking his part. The corregi- 
dore was glad to hear it all, and with an officious ear fished 
for a great deal more ; expecting, according to usage, at last 
to squeeze a sum of money out of me. However, he told the 
clerico, that as I was a prisoner of war, he had no power 
over me ; but if he would immediately write to the President 



THE CLEKICO'S SCHEMES DEFEATED. 431 

Ronquillo, at Madrid, he would not fail to give his immediate 
orders, according to which he would as readily act against 
me. 

The clerico resolved to pursue his old maxim and cry out 
first ; and so taking the corregidore's advice, he wrote away 
to Madrid directly. In the mean time, the people in the 
town, both high and low, some out of curiosity, some out of 
friendship, pursued their inquiries into the reality of the 
facts. The old landlady they could make little of to my ad- 
vantage ; but whenever the young one came to the question, 
she always left them with these words in her mouth, El 
Diabolo en forma del Clerico, which rendering things more 
than a little cloudy on the clerico's side, he was advised and 
pressed by his few friends, as fast as he could, to get out of 
town ; nuns, clergy, and everybody taking part against him, 
excepting his new convert, my old landlady. 

The day after, as I was sitting with a friend at my new 
quarters, Maria (for that was the name of my landlady's 
daughter), came running in with these words in her mouih, 
El clerico, el clerico, passa la calle. We hastened to the 
window ; out of which we beheld the clerico, Murtough 
Brennan, pitifully mounted on the back of a very poor ass, 
for they would neither let nor lend him a mule through all 
the town ; his legs almost rested on the ground, for he was 
lusty, as his ass was little ; and a fellow with a large cudgel 
marched afoot, driving his ass along. Never did Sancho 
Pancha, on his embassage to Dulcinea, make such a despic- 
able out-of-the-way figure, as our clerico did at this time. 
And what increased our mirth was, their telling me, that our 
clerico, like that squire (though upon his own priest-errantry), 
was actually on his march to Toboso, a place five leagues off, 
famous for the nativity of Dulcinea, the object of the passion 
of that celebrated hero Don Quixotte. So I will leave our 
clerico on his journey to Murcia, to relate the unhappy sequel 
of this ridiculous affair. 

I have before said, that, by the advice of the corregidore, 
our clerico had wrote to Don Ronquillo at Madrid. About 
a fortnight after his departure from La Mancha, I was sitting 
alone in my new lodgings, when two alguazils (officers under 
the corregidore, and in the nature of our bailiffs), came into 
my room, but very civilly, to tell me, that they had orders to 
carry me away to prison ; but at the same moment, they ad- 



432 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAELETON. 

vised me not to be afraid ; for they had observed, that the 
whole town was concerned at what the corregidore and clerico 
had done ; adding, that it was their opinion, that I should 
find so general a friendship, that I need not be apprehen- 
sive of any danger. With these plausible speeches, though I 
afterwards experienced the truth of them, I resigned myself, 
and went with them to a much closer confinement. 

I had not been there above a day or two, before many 
gentlemen of the place sent to me, to assure me, they were 
heartily afflicted at my confinement, and resolved to write in 
my favour to Madrid ; but as it was not safe, nor the custom 
in Spain, to visit those in my present circumstances, they 
hoped I would not take it amiss, since they were bent to act 
all in their power towards my deliverance ; concluding, how- 
ever, with their advice, that I would not give one real of Plata 
to the corregidore, whom they hated, but confide in their as* 
siduous interposal. Don Pedro de Ortega in particular, the 
person that performed the part of the tauriro on horseback, 
sometime before, sent me word, he would not fail to write to 
a relation of his, of the first account in Madrid, and so repre^ 
sent the affair, that I should not long be debarred my old 
acquaintance. 

It may administer, perhaps, matter of wonder, that Spani- 
ards, gentlemen of the staunchest punctilio, should make a 
scruple, and excuse themselves from visiting persons under 
confinement, when, according to all Christian acceptation, 
such a circumstance would render such a visit, not charitable 
only, but generous. But though men of vulgar spirits might, 
from the narrowness of their views, form such insipid excuses, 
those of these gentlemen, I very well knew, proceeded from 
much more excusable topics. I was committed under the ac- 
cusation of having abused a sacred person, one of the clergy ; 
and though, as a prisoner of war, I might deem myself exempt 
from the power of the Inquisition, yet how far one of that 
country, visiting a person, so accused, might be esteemed cul- 
pable, was a consideration in that dangerous climate, far from 
deserving to be slighted. To me, therefore, who well knew 
the customs of the country, and the temper of its country- 
men, their excuses were not only allowable, but acceptable 
also : for, without calling in question their charity, I verily 
believed I might safely confide in their honour. 

Accordingly, after I had been a close prisoner one month 



THE CLERIC O PRONOUNCED A SCANDAL. 433 

to a day, I found the benefit of these gentlemens' promises 
and solicitations ; pursuant to which, an order was brought 
for my immediate discharge ; notwithstanding, the new con- 
vert, my old landlady, did all she could to make her appear- 
ing against me effectual, to the height of her prejudice and 
malice, even while the daughter, as sensible of my innocence, 
and acting with a much better conscience, endeavoured as 
much to justity me, against both the threats and persuasions 
of the corregidore, and his few accomplices, though her own 
mother made one. 

After receipt of this order for my enlargement, I was 
mightily pressed by Don Felix, and others of my friends, to 
go to Madrid, and enter my complaint against the corregidore 
and the clerico, as a thing highly essential to my own future 
security. Without asking leave, therefore, of the corregidore, 
or in the least acquainting him with it, I set out from La 
Mancha, and, as I afterwards understood, to the terrible 
alarm of that griping officer, who was under the greatest 
consternation when he heard I was gone ; for, as he knew 
very well that he had done more than he could justify, he 
was very apprehensive of any complaint ; well knowing, that 
as he was hated as much as I was beloved, he might assure 
himself of the want of that assistance from the gentlemen, 
which I had experienced. 

So soon as I arrived at Madrid, I made it my business to 
inquire out and wait upon Father Fahy, chief of the Irish 
college. He received me very courteously ; but when I 
acquainted him with the treatment I had met with from 
Brennan, and had given him an account of his other scanda- 
lous behaviour, I found he was no stranger to the man, or 
his character ; for he soon confirmed to me the honour 
Brennan first boasted of, his considerable family, by saying, 
that scarce an assize passed in his own country, without two 
or three of that name receiving at the gallows the just reward 
of their demerits. In short, not only Father Fahy, but all 
the clergy of that nation at Madrid, readily subscribed to 
this character of him, that he was a scandal to their country. 

After this, I had nothing more to do, but to get that Father 
to go with me to Pedro de Dios, who was the head of the 
Dominican cloister, and dean of the Inquisition. He readily 
granted my request ; and when we came there, in a manner 
unexpected, represented to the dean, that having some gootf 

VOL. II. F F 



434 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

dispositions towards mother- church, I had been diverted from 
them, he feared, by the evil practices of one Murtough 
Brennan, a countryman of his, though a scandal to his 
country ; that, under a pretence of seeking my conversion, he 
had laid himself open in a most beastly manner, such as would 
have set a catholic into a vile opinion of their religion, and 
much more one that was yet a heretic. The dean had hardly 
patience to hear particulars ; but as soon as my friend had 
ended his narration, he immediately gave his orders, prohibit- 
ing Murtough's saying any more masses, either in Madrid, 
or any other place in Spain. This indeed was taking away 
the poor wretch's sole subsistence, and putting him just upon 
an equality with his demerits. 

I took the same opportunity to make my complaints of the 
corregidore ; but his term expiring very soon, and a process 
being likely to be chargeable, I was advised to let it drop. 
So having effected what I came for, I returned to my old 
station at La Mancha. 

When I came back, I found a new corregidore, as I had 
been told there would, by the dean of the Inquisition, who, 
at the same time, advised me to wait on him. I did so, soon 
after my arrival, and then experienced the advice to be well 
intended ; the dean having wrote a letter to him, to order 
him to treat me with all manner of civility. He showed me 
the very letter, and it was in such particular and obliging 
terms, that I could not but perceive he had taken a resolution, 
if possible, to eradicate all the evil impressions that Murtough's 
behaviour might have given too great occasion for. This 
served to confirm me in an observation that I had long 
before made, that a protestant, who will prudently keep his 
sentiments in his own breast, may command anything in 
Spain ; where their stiff bigotry leads them naturally into 
that other mistake, that not to oppose, is to assent. Besides, 
it is generally among them almost a work of supererogation 
to be even instrumental in the conversion of one they call a 
heretic. To bring any such back to what they call mother- 
church, nothing shall be spared, nothing thought too much ; 
and if you have insincerity enough to give them hopes, you 
shall not only live in ease, but in pleasure and plenty. 

I had entertained some thoughts on my journey back, of 
taking up my old quarters at the widow's ; but found her so 
entirely converted by her clerico, that there would be no 



PROCLAMATION OF PEACE. 435 

room to expect peace : for which reason, with the help of 
my fair vicinos, and Don Felix, I took another, where I had 
not been long before I received an unhappy account of 
Murtough's conduct in Murcia. It seems he had kept his 
resolution in going thither ; where meeting with some of his 
own countrymen, though he found them staunch good 
catholics, he so far inveigled himself into them, that he 
brought them all into a foul chance for their lives. There 
were three of them, all soldiers, in a Spanish regiment ; but 
in a fit of ambitious, though frantic zeal, Murtough had 
wheedled them to go along with him to Pedro de Dios, dean 
of the Inquisition, to declare and acknowledge before him, 
that they were converted and brought over to mother-church, 
and by him only. The poor ignorants, thus enticed, had left 
their regiment, of which the colonel having notice, sent after 
them, and they were overtaken on the road, their missionair 
with them. But notwithstanding all his oratory, nay, even 
the discovery of the whole farce, one of them was hanged for 
an example to the other two. 

It was not long after my return before news arrived of the 
peace ; which though they received with joy, they could 
hardly entertain with belief. Upon which, the new corregi- 
dore, with whom I held a better correspondence than I had 
done with the old one, desired me to produce my letters from 
England, that it was true. Never did people give greater 
demonstrations of joy than they upon this occasion. It was 
the common cry in the streets, Paz con Angleterra, con todo 
Mundo Guerra! and my confirmation did them as much 
pleasure as it did service to me ; for, if possible, they treated 
me with more civility than before. 

But the peace soon after being proclaimed, I received 
orders to repair to Madrid, where the rest of the prisoners 
taken at Denia had been carried ; when I, by reason of my 
wounds, and want of health, had been left behind. Others I 
understood lay ready, and some were on their march to 
Bayonne in France, where ships were ordered for their 
transportation into England. So, after a residence of three 
years and three months, having taken leave of all my 
acquaintance, I left a place that was almost become natural 
to me, the delicious Sainte Clem en te de la Mancha. 



fp2 



436 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE SHADE OF DON QUIXOTTE — CONCISE ACCOUNT OF 

MADRID ANECDOTE OF MAHONI AND GENERAL STANHOPE 

THE ESCURIAL ACCOUNT OF THE CONVENT OF THE 

CARTHUSIAN ORDER. 

Nothinc of moment, or worth observing, met I with, till 
I came near Ocanna ; and there occurred a sight ridiculous 
enough. The knight of the town I last came from, the ever 
renowned Don Quixotte, never made such a figure as a 
Spaniard I there met on the road. He was mounted on a 
mule of the largest size, and yet no way unsizeable to his 
person : he had two pistols in his holsters, and one on each 
side stuck in his belt ; a sort of large blunderbuss in one of 
his hands, and the fellow to it, slung over his shoulders, hung 
at his back. All these were accompanied with a right Spanish 
spado, and an attendant stiletto, in their customary position. 
The muleteer that was my guide, calling out to him in 
Spanish, told him he was very well armed ; to which, with a 
great deal of gravity, the Don returned answer, By Saint 
Jago, a man cannot be too well armed in such dangerous 
times ! 

I took up my quarters that night at Ocanna, a large, neat, 
and well-built town. Houses of good reception and enter- 
tainment are very scarce all over Spain, but that, where I 
then lay, might have passed for good in any other country. 
Yet it gave me a notion quite different to what I found ; for 
I imagined it to proceed from my near approach to the 
capital. But instead of that, contrary to all other countries, 
the nearer I came to Madrid, the nouses of entertainment 
grew worse and worse ; not in their rates do I mean (for 
that with reason enough might have been expected), but even 
in their provision, and places and way of reception. I could 
not, however, forbear smiling at the reason given by my 
muleteer, that it proceeded from a piece of court policy, in 
order to oblige all travellers to hasten to Madrid. 

Two small leagues from Ocanna we arrived at Aranjuez, 
a seat of pleasure, which the kings of Spain commonly select 
for their place of residence during the months of April and 



WATERWORKS AND BEAUTIES OF ARANJUEZ. 437 

May. It is distant from Madrid about seven leagues; and 
the country round is the pleasantest in all Spain, Valencia 
excepted. The house itself makes but very indifferent ap- 
pearance ; I have seen many a better in England with an 
owner to it of no more that 500Z. per annum ; yet the 
gardens are large and fine; or, as the Spaniards say, the 
finest in all Spain, which with them is all the world. They 
tell you at the same time that those of Versailles, in their 
most beautiful parts, took their model from these. I never 
saw those at Versailles ; but, in my opinion, the walks at 
Aranjuez, though noble in their length, lose much of their 
beauty by their narrowness. 

The waterworks here are a great curiosity ; to which the 
river Tagus, running along close by, does mightily con- 
tribute. That river is let into the gardens by a vast number 
of little canals, which, with their pleasing meanders, divert 
the eye with inexpressible delight. These pretty wanderers, 
by pipes properly placed in them, afford varieties scarce to 
be believed or imagined; and which would be grateful in any 
climate, but much more where the air, as it does here, wants 
in the summer months perpetual cooling. 

To see a spreading tree, as growing in its natural soil, 
distinguished from its pining neighbourhood by a gentle 
refreshing shower, which appears softly distilling from every 
branch and leaf thereof, while nature all around is smiling, 
without one liquid sign of sorrow, to me appeared sur- 
prisingly pleasing. And the more when I observed, that its 
neighbours received not any the least benefit of that plentiful 
effusion ; and yet a very few trees distant, you shall find a 
dozen together under the same healthful sudor. Where art 
imitates nature well, philosophers hold it a perfection ; then 
what must she exact of us, where we find her transcendant 
in the perfections of nature ? 

The watery arch is nothing less surprising; where art, 
contending with nature, acts against the laws of nature, and 
yet is beautiful. To see a liquid stream vaulting itself for 
the space of threescore yards into a prefect semi-orb, will be 
granted by the curious to be rare and strange ; but sure, to 
walk beneath that arch, and see the waters flowing over your 
head, without your receiving the minutest drop, is stranger, 
if not strange enough to stagger all belief 

The story of Aetaeon, pictured in water-colours, if I may 



438 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

so express myself, though pretty, seemed to me but trifling to 
the other. Those seemed to be like nature miraculously 
displayed ; this only fable in grotesque. The figures indeed 
were not only fine, but extraordinary; yet their various 
shapes were not at all so entertaining to the mind, however 
refreshing they might be found to the body. 

I took notice before of the straightness of their walks ; 
but though to me it might seem a diminution of their beauty, 
I am apt to believe to the Spaniard, for and by whom they 
were laid out, it may seem otherwise. They, of both sexes, 
give themselves so intolerably up to amouring, that, on that 
account, the closeness of the walks may be looked upon as 
an advantage rather than a defect. The grand avenue to the 
house is much more stately, and composed, as they are, of 
rows of trees somewhat larger than our largest limes, whose 
leaves are all of a perfect pea-bloom colour, together with 
their grandeur, they strike the eye with a pleasing beauty. 
At the entrance of the grand court we see the statue of 
Philip II. ; to intimate to the spectators, I suppose, that he 
was the founder. 

Among other parks about Aranjuez, there is one entirely 
preserved for dromedaries ; an useful creature for fatigue, 
burthen, and despatch ; but the nearest of kin to deformity of 
any I ever saw. There are several other inclosures for 
several sorts of strange and wild beasts, which are sometimes 
baited in a very large pond, that was shown me about half a 
league from hence. This is no ordinary diversion ; but when 
the court is disposed that way, the beast, or beasts, whether 
bear, lion, or tiger, are conveyed into a house prepared for 
that purpose ; whence he can no other way issue than by a 
door over the water, through, or over which, forcing or 
flinging himself, he gradually finds himself descend into the 
very depth of the pond by a wooden ' declivity. The dogs 
stand ready on the banks, and so soon as ever they spy their 
enemy, rush all at once into the water, and engage him. A 
diversion less to be complained of than their tauridores, 
because attended with less cruelty to the beast, as well as 
danger to the spectators. 

When we arrived at Madrid, a town much spoken of by 
natives, as well as strangers, though I had seen it before, I 
could hardly restrain myself from being surprised to find it 
only environed with mud walls. It may very easily be 



DESCRIPTION OF MADRID. 439 

imagined, they were never intended for defence, and yet it 
was a long time before I could find any other use, or rather 
any use at all, in them ; and yet I was at last convinced of 
my error by a sensible increase of expense. Without the 
gates, to half a league without the town, you have wine for 
twopence the quart ; but within the place, you drink it little 
cheaper than you may in London. The mud walls, there- 
fore, well enough answer their intent of forcing people to 
reside there, under pretence of security, but, in reality, to be 
taxed ; for other things are taxable as well as wine, though 
not in like proportion. 

All ambassadors have a claim or privilege of bringing in 
what wine they please tax-free ; and the king, to waive it, 
will at any time purchase that exemption of duty at the 
price of five hundred pistoles per annum. The convents and 
nunneries are allowed a like license of free importation; and 
it is one of the first advantages they can boast of; for, under 
that license, having a liberty of setting up a tavern near 
them, they make a prodigious advantage of it. The wine 
drank and sold in this place is for the most part a sort of 
white wine. 

But if the mud walls gave me at first but a faint idea of 
the place, I was pleasingly disappointed as soon as I entered 
the gates. The town then showed itself well built, and of 
brick, and the streets wide, long, and spacious. Those of 
Atocha and Alcala are as fine as any I ever saw ; yet it is 
situated but very indifferently : for, though they have what 
they call a river, to which they give the very fair name of 
La Mansuera, and over which they have built a curious, 
long, and large stone bridge ; yet is the course of it, in 
summer time especially, mostly dry. This gave occasion to 
that piece ot raillery of a foreign ambassador, That the king 
would have done wisely to have bought a river before he 
built the bridge. Nevertheless, that little stream of a river 
which they boast of, they improve as much as possible ; since 
down the sides, as far as you can see, there are coops, or 
little places hooped in, for people to wash their linen (for 
they very rarely wash in their own houses), nor is it really 
any unpleasing sight to view the regular rows of them at 
that cleanly operation. 

The king has here two palaces ; one within the town, the 



440 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

other near adjoining. That in the town is built of stone ; the 
other, which is called Bueno Retiro, is all of brick. From 
the town to this last, in summer time, there is a large cover- 
ing of canvass, propt up with tall poles, under which people 
walk, to avoid the scorching heats of the sun. 

As I was passing by the chapel of the Carmelites, I saw 
several blind men, some led, some groping the way with their 
sticks, going into the chapel. I had the curiosity to know 
the reason ; I no sooner entered the door, but was surprised 
to see such a number of those unfortunate people, all kneeling 
before the altar, some kissing the ground, others holding up 
their heads, crying out Miseiicordia. I was informed it was 
St. Lucy's day, the patroness of the blind ; therefore, all who 
were able came upon that day to pay their devotion : so I 
left them, and directed my course towards the king's palace. 

When I came to the outward court, I met with a Spanish 
gentleman of my acquaintance, and we went into the piazzas ; 
whilst we were talking there, I saw several gentlemen passing 
by, having badges on their breasts, some white, some red, and 
others green ; my friend informed me, that there were five 
orders of knighthood in Spain. That of the Golden Fleece 
was only given to great princes, but the other four to private 
gentlemen, viz., that of St. Jago, Alcantara, St. Salvador de 
Montreal, and Monteza. 

He likewise told me that there were above ninety places of 
grandees, but never filled up, who have the privilege of being 
covered in the presence of the king, and are distinguished into 
three ranks. The first is, of those who cover themselves 
before they speak to the king ; the second, are those who put 
on their hats after they have begun to speak ; the third, are 
those who only put on their hats, having spoke to him. 
The ladies of the grandees have also great respect showed 
them. The queen rises up when they enter the chamber, and 
offers them cushions. 

No married man, except the king, lies in the palace ; for 
all the women who live there are widows, or maids of honour 
to the queen. I saw the Prince of Asturia's dinner carried 
through the court up to him, being guarded by four gentle- 
men of the guards, one before, another behind, and one on 
each side, with their carbines shouldered ; the queen's came 
next, and the king's the last, guarded as before; for they 



THE PLAZA, OR MARKET-PLACE. 441 

always dine separately. I observed, that the gentlemen of 
the guards, though not on duty, yet they are obliged to wear 
their carbine belts. 

St. Isidore, who, from a poor labouring man, by his sanctity 
of life arrived to the title of saint, is the patron of Madrid, 
and has a church dedicated to him, which is richly adorned 
within. The sovereign court of the Inquisition is held at 
Madrid, the president whereof is called the Inquisitor-general. 
They judge without allowing any* appeal for four sorts of 
crimes, viz., heresy, polygamy, sodomy, and witchcraft ; and 
when any are convicted, it is called the act of faith. 

Most people believe, that the king's greatest revenue con- 
sists in the gold and silver brought from the West Indies, 
which is a mistake ; for most part of that wealth belongs to 
merchants and others, that pay the workmen at the golden 
mines of Potosi, and the silver mines at Mexico ; yet the 
king, as I have been informed, receives about a million and 
a half of gold. 

The Spaniards have a saying, that the finest garden of 
fruit in Spain is in the middle of Madrid, which is the Plaza, 
or market-place ; and truly the stalls there are set forth with 
such variety of delicious fruit, that I must confess I never 
saw any place comparable to it ; and, which adds to my 
admiration, there are no gardens or orchards of fruit within 
some leagues. 

They seldom eat hares in Spain, but whilst the grapes are 
growing ; and then they are so exceeding fat, they are 
knocked down with sticks. Their rabbits are not so good as 
ours in England ; they have great plenty of partridges, which 
are larger and finer feathered than ours. They have but 
little beef in Spain, because there is no grass ; but they have 
plenty of mutton, and exceeding good, because their sheep 
feed only upon wild potherbs ; their pork is delicious, their 
hogs feeding only upon chesnuts and acorns. 

Madrid and Valladolid, though great, yet are only accounted 
villages ; in the latter, Philip the Second, by the persuasion 
of Parsons, an English Jesuit, erected an English seminary ; 
and Philip the Fourth built a most noble palace, with extra- 
ordinary fine gardens. They say, that Christopher Columbus, 
who first discovered the West Indies, died there, though I 
have heard he lies buried, and has a monument at Sevil. 

The palace in the town stands upon eleven arches, under 



442 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

every one of which there are shops,~which degrade it to a 
mere exchange. Nevertheless, the stairs by which you 
ascend up to the guard-room (which is very spacious too), 
are stately, large, and curious. So soon as you have passed 
the guard-room, you enter into a long and noble gallery, the 
right hand whereof leads to the king's apartment, the left to 
the queen's. Entering into the king's apartment, you soon 
arrive at a large room, where he keeps his levee ; on one 
side whereof (for it takes* up the whole side), is painted the 
fatal battle of Almanza. I confess the view somewhat affected 
me, though so long after, and brought to mind many old 
passages. However, the reflection concluded thus in favour 
of the Spaniard, that we ought to excuse their vanity in so 
exposing, under a French general, a victory, which was the 
only material one the Spaniards could ever boast of over an 
English army. 

In this state room, when the king first appears, every 
person present receives him with a profound homage ; after 
which, turning from the company to a large velvet chair, by 
which stands the father confessor, he kneels down, and 
remains some time at his devotion; which being over, he 
rising, crosses himself, and his father confessor having with 
the motion of his hand intimated his benediction, he then 
gives audience to all that attend for that purpose. He re- 
ceives every body with a seeming complaisance, and with an 
air more resembling the French than the Spanish ceremony. 
Petitions to the king, as with us, are delivered into the hands 
of the secretary of state ; yet in one particular they are, in 
my opinion, worthy the imitation of other courts ; the peti- 
tioner is directly told what day he must come for an answer 
to the office ; at which time he is sure, without any farther 
fruitless attendance, not to fail of it. The audience being 
over, the king returns through the gallery to Jhis own 
apartment. 

I cannot here omit an accidental conversation, that passed 
between General Mahoni and myself in this place. After 
some talk of the bravery of the English nation, he made men- 
tion of General Stanhope, with a very peculiar emphasis. 
But, says he, I never was so put to the nonplus in all my days 
as that general once put me in. I was on the road from Paris 
to Madrid, and having notice, that that general was going 
just the reverse, and that in all likelihood we should meet the 



THEATRES OF MADRID. 443 

next day, before my setting out in the morning, I took care 
to order my gayest regimental apparel, resolving to make the 
best appearance I could to receive so great a man. I had 
not travelled above four hours before I saw two gentlemen, 
who appearing to be English, it induced me to imagine they 
were forerunners, and some of his retinue. But how abashed 
and confounded was I, when putting the question to one of 
them, he made answer, Sir, I am the person ! Never did 
moderation put vanity more out of countenance : though, to 
say truth, I could not but think his dress as much too plain 
for General Stanhope, as I at that juncture thought my own 
too gay for Mahoni. But, added he, that great man had too 
many inward great endowments to stand in need of any out- 
side decoration. 

Of all diversions, the king takes most delight in that of 
shooting, which he performs with great exactness and dex- 
terity. I have seen him divert himself at swallow-shooting 
(by all, I think, allowed to be the most difficult), and ex- 
ceeding all I ever saw. The last time I had the honour to 
see him, was on his return from that exercise. He had been 
abroad with the Duke of Medina Sidonia, and alighted out 
of his coach at a back door of the palace, with three or four 
birds in his hand, which, according to his usual custom, he 
carried up to the queen with his own hands. 

There are two playhouses in Madrid, at both which they 
act every day ; but their actors and their music are almost 
too indifferent to be mentioned. The theatre at the Bueno 
Retiro is much the best ; but as much inferior to ours at 
London, as those at Madrid are to that. I was at one play, 
when both king and queen were present. There was a 
splendid audience, and a great concourse of ladies ; but the 
latter, as is the custom there, having lattices before them, 
the appearance lost most of its lustre. One very remarkable 
thing happened while I was there ; the Ave-bell rung in the 
middle of an act, when down on their knees fell everybody, 
even the players on the stage, in the middle of their harangue. 
They remained for some time at their devotion ; then up 
they rose, and returned to the business they were before en- 
gaged in, beginning where they left off. 

The ladies of quality make their visits in grand state and 
decorum. The lady- visitant is carried in a chair by four 
men; the two first, in all weathers, always bare. Two 



444 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

others walk as a guard, one on each side ; another carrying a 
large lantern for fear of being benighted ; then follows a 
coach drawn by six mules, with her women, and after that 
another with her gentlemen ; several servants walking after, 
more or less, according to the quality of the person. They 
never suffer their servants to overload a coach, as is fre- 
quently seen with us ; neither do coachmen or chairmen go 
or drive, as if they carried midwives in lieu of ladies. On 
the contrary, they affect a motion so slow and so stately, that 
you would rather imagine the ladies were every one of them 
near their time, and very apprehensive of a miscarriage. 

I remember not to have seen here any horses in any coach, 
but in the king's, or an ambassador's ; which can only pro- 
ceed from custom, for certainly finer horses are not to be 
found in the world. 

At the time of my being here, Cardinal Giudici was at 
Madrid ; he was a tall, proper, comely man, and one that 
made the best appearance. Alberoni was there at the same 
time, who, upon the death of the Duke of Vendosme, had the 
good fortune to find the Princess Ursini his patroness ; an 
instance of whose ingratitude will plead pardon for this little 
digression. That princess first brought Alberoni into favour 
at court. They were both of Italy, and that might be one 
reason of that lady's espousing his interest ; though some 
there are that assign it to the recommendation of the Duke of 
Vendosme, with whom Alberoni had the honour to be very 
intimate, as the other was always distinguished by that 
princess. Be which it will, certain it is, she was Alberoni's 
first and sole patroness ; which gave many people afterwards 
a very smart occasion of reflecting upon him, both as to his 
integrity and gratitude. For when Alberoni, upon the death 
of King Philip's first queen, had recommended this present 
lady, who was his countrywoman (she of Parma, and he of 
Placentia, both in the same dukedom), and had forwarded 
her match with the king with all possible assiduity; and 
when that princess, pursuant to the orders she had received 
from the king, passed over into Italy to accompany the queen 
elect into her own dominions, Alberoni, forgetful of the hand 
that first advanced him, sent a letter to the present queen, 
just before her landing, that if she resolved to be Queen of 
Spain, she must banish the Princess Ursini, her companion, 
and never let her come to court. Accordingly, that lady, 



COUNT DE MONTERY TAKES ORDERS. 445 

to evince the extent of her power, and the strength of her 
resolution, despatched that princess away, on her very land- 
ing, and before she had seen the king, under a detachment 
of her own guards, into France ; and all this without either 
allowing her an opportunity of justifying herself, or assigning 
the least reason for so uncommon an action. But the same 
Alberoni (though afterwards created cardinal, and for some 
time King Philip's prime minion) soon saw that ingratitude 
of his rewarded in his own disgrace at the very same court. 

I remember when at La Mancha, Don Felix Pachero, in a 
conversation there, maintained, that three women at that 
time ruled the world, viz., Queen Anne, Madam Maintenon, 
and this Princess Ursini. 

Father Fahy's civilities, when last at Madrid, exacting of 
me some suitable acknowledgment, I went to pay him a 
visit ; as to render him due thanks for the past, so as to' give 
him a farther account of his countryman Brennan ; but I soon 
found he did not much incline to hear anything more of 
Murtough, not expecting to hear anything good of him ; for 
which reason, as soon as I well could, I changed the conver- 
sation to another topic ; in which some word dropping of 
the Count de Montery, I told him, that I heard he had 
taken orders, and officiated at mass : he made answer, it was 
all very true. And upon my intimating, that I had the 
honour to serve under him in Flanders, on my first entering 
into service, and when he commanded the Spanish forces at 
the famous battle of Seneff ; and adding, that I could not but 
be surprised, that he, who was then one of the brightest cava- 
lieroes of the age, should now be in orders, and that I should 
look upon it as a mighty favour barely to have, if it might 
be, a view of him ; he very obligingly told me, that he was 
very well acquainted with him, and that if I would come the 
next day, he would not fail to accompany me to the count's 
house. 

Punctually at the time appointed I waited on Father Fahy, 
who, as he promised, carried me to the count's house: he 
was stepping into the coach just as we got there ; but seeing 
Father Fahy, he advanced towards us. The father delivered 
my desire in as handsome a manner as could be, and con- 
cluded with the reason of it, from my having been in that 
service under him ; he seemed very well pleased, but added, 
that there were not many beside myself living, who had been 



446 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

in that service with him. After some other conversation, he 
called his gentleman to him, and gave him particular orders 
to give us a frescari, or, in English, an entertainment ; so, 
taking leave, he went into his coach, and we to our frescari. 

Coming from which, Father Fahy made me observe, in the 
open street, a stone, on which was a visible great stain of 
somewhat reddish, and like blood. This, said he, was occa- 
sioned by the death of a countryman of mine, who had the 
misfortune to overset a child, coming out of that house 
(pointing to one opposite to us) ; the child, frighted, though 
not hurt, as is natural, made a terrible outcry ; upon which 
its father coming out in a violent rage (notwithstanding my 
countryman begged pardon, and pleaded sorrow, as being only 
an accident), stabbed him to the heart, and down he fell 
upon that stone, which to this day retains the mark of inno- 
cent blood, so rashly shed. He went on, and told me the 
Spaniard immediately took sanctuary in the church, whence 
some time after he made his escape. But escapes of that 
nature are so common in Spain, that they are not worth won- 
dering at. For even though it were for wilful and preme- 
ditated murder, if the murderer have taken sanctuary, it was 
never known that he was delivered up to justice, though de- 
manded ; but in some disguise he makes his escape, or some 
way is secured against all the clamours of power or equity. 

I have observed, that some of the greatest quality stop their 
coaches over a stinking nasty puddle, which they often find in 
the streets, and, holding their heads over the door, snuff up 
the nasty scent which ascends, believing that it is extremely 
healthful ; when I was forced to hold my nose, passing by. 
It is not convenient to walk out early in the morning ; they, 
having no necessary houses, throw out their nastiness in the 
middle of the street. 

After I had taken leave of Father Fahy, and returned my 
thanks for all civilities, I went to pay a visit to Mr. Salter, 
who was secretary to General Stanhope, when the English 
forces were made prisoners of war at Brihuega. Going up 
stairs, I found the door of his lodgings a-jar ; and knocking, 
a person came to the door, who appeared under some surprise 
at sight of me. I did not know him ; but inquiring if Mr. 
Salter was within, he answered, as I fancied, with some hesi- 
tation, that he was, but was busy in an inner room. How- 
ever, though unasked, I went in, resolving, since I had found 



MYSTERIOUS INTRODUCTION. 447 

him at home, to wait his leisure. In a little time Mr. Salter 
entered the room ; and after customary ceremonies, asking my 
patience a little longer, he desired I would sit down and bear 
Ensign Fanshaw company (for so he called him), adding, at 
going out, he had a little business that required despatch ; 
which being over, he would return and join company. 

The ensign, as he called him, appeared to me under a disha- 
bille ; and the first question he asked me, was, if I would 
drink a glass of English beer ? Misled by his appearance, 
though I assented, it was with a design to treat, which he 
would by no means permit, but, calling to a servant, ordered 
some in We sat drinking that liquor, which to me was a 
greater rarity than all the wine in Spain; when in dropt an old 
acquaintance of mine, Mr. Le Noy, secretary to Colonel 
Nevil. He sat down with us, and before the glass could go 
twice round, told Ensign Fanshaw, that his colonel gave his 
humble service to him, and ordered him to let him know, 
that he had but threescore pistoles by him, which he had sent, 
and which were at his service, as what he pleased more should 
be, as soon as it came to his hands. 

At this I began to look upon my ensign as another guess 
person than I had taken him for ; and Le Noy imagining, by 
our sitting cheek by jowl together, that I must be in the 
secret, soon after gave him the title of captain. This soon 
convinced me, that there was more in the matter than I was 
yet master of; for laying things together, I could not but 
argue within myself, that as it seemed at first a most in- 
credible thing, that a person of his appearance should have so 
large a credit, with such a compliment at the end of it, with- 
out some disguise ; and as from an ensign he was risen to be 
a captain, in the taking of one bottle of English beer ; a 
little patience would let me into a farce, in which at present 
I had not the honour to bear any part but that of a mute. 

At last Le Noy took his leave, and as soon as he had left us, 
and the other bottle was brought in, Ensign Fanshaw began 
to open his heart, and tell me who he was. I am necessi- 
tated, said he, co be under this disguise, to conceal myself, 
especially in this place. For you must know, continued he, 
that when our forces were lords of this town, as we were for 
a little while, I fell under an intrigue with another man's 
wife: her husband was a person of considerable account; 
nevertheless the wife showed me all the favours that a soldier, 



4 ±8 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

under a long and hard campaign, could be imagined to ask. 
In short, her relations got acquainted with our amour, and 
knowing that I was among the prisoners taken at Brihuega, 
are now upon the scout and inquiry, to make a discovery that 
may be of fatal consequence. This is the reason of my dis- 
guise ; this the unfortunate occasion of my taking upon me a 
name that does not belong to me. 

He spoke all this with such an openness of heart, that, in 
return of so much confidence, I confessed to him that I had 
heard of +he affair, for that it had made no little noise all over 
the country : that it highly behoved him to take great care of 
himself, since, as the relations on both sides were considerable, 
he must consequently be in great danger ; that in cases of 
that nature, no people in the world carry things to greater 
extremities than the Spaniards. He returned me thanks for 
my good advice, which I understood in a few days after, he, 
with the assistance of his friends, had taken care to put in 
practice ; for he was conveyed away secretly, and afterwards 
had the honour to be made a peer of Ireland. 

My passport being at last signed by the Count de las Torres, 
I prepared for a journey I had long and ardently wished for, 
and set out from Madrid in the beginning of September, 1712, 
in order to return to my native country. 

Accordingly, I set forward upon my journey; but having 
heard, both before and since my being in Spain, very famous 
things spoken of the Escurial, though it was a league out of 
my road, I resolved to make it a visit. And I must confess, 
when I came there, I was so far from condemning my curiosity, 
that I chose to congratulate my good fortune, that had, at 
half a day's expense, feasted my eyes with extraordinaries 
which would have justified a twelvemonth's journey on 
purpose. 

The structure is entirely magnificent, beyond anything I 
ever saw, or anything my imagination could frame. It is 
composed of eleven several quadrangles, with noble cloisters 
round every one of them. The front to the west is adorned 
with three stately gates; every one of a different model, yet 
every one the model of nicest architecture. The middlemost 
of the three leads into a fine chapel of the Hieronomites, as 
they call them, in which are entertain^ one hundred and fifty 
monks. At every of the four corners ot ihis august fabric, 
there is a turret of excellent workmanship, which yields to 



THE ESCURIAL. 449 

the whole an extraordinary air of grandeur. The king's 
palace is on the north, nearest that mountain whence the 
stone it is built of was hewn ; and all the south part is set off 
with many galleries, both beautiful and sumptuous. 

This prodigious pile, which, as I have said, exceeds all that 
I ever saw, and which would ask of itself a volume to par- 
ticularise, was built by Philip II. He laid the first stone, 
yet lived to see it finished t ; and lies buried in the Pantheon, 
a part of it set apart for the burial place of succeeding princes, 
as well as himself. It was dedicated to St. Lawrence in the 
very foundation ; and therefore built in the shape of a grid- 
iron, the instrument of that martyr's execution, and in memory 
of a great victory obtained on that saint's day. The stone of 
which it is built, contrary to the common course, grows whiter 
by age ; and the quarry, whence it was dug, lies near enough, 
if it had sense or ambition, to grow enamoured of its own 
wonderful production. Some there are, who stick not to 
assign this convenience as the main cause of its situation; and 
for my part, I must agree, that I have seen many other pails 
of Spain where that glorious building would have shown with 
yet far greater splendour. 

There was no town of any consequence presented itself in 
my way to Burgos. Here I took up my quarters that night; 
where I met with an Irish priest, whose name was White. 
As is natural on such rencounters, having answered his 
inquiry, whither I was going, he very kindly told me, he 
should be very glad of my company as far as Victoria, which 
lay in my road ; and I with equal frankness embraced the 
offer. 

Next morning, when we had mounted our mules, and 
were got a little distance from Burgos, he began to relate to 
me a great many impious pranks of an English officer, who 
had been a prisoner there a little before I came ; concluding 
all, with some vehemence, that he had given greater occasion 
of scandal and infamy to his native country, than would 
easily be wiped off, or in a little time. The truth of it is, 
many particulars, which he related to me, were too mon- 
strously vile to admit of any repetition here; and highly 
meriting that unfortunate end, which that officer met with 
some time after. Nevertheless, the just reflections, made by 
that Father, plainly manifested to me the folly of those 
gentlemen, who, by such inadvertencies, to .say no worse, 

VOL. II. G G 



450 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

cause the honour of the land of their nativity to be called in 
question. For though, no doubt, it is a very false conclusion, 
from a singular, to conceive a general character ; yet, in a 
strange country, nothing is more common. A man, there- 
fore, of common sense, would carefully avoid all occasions 
of censure, if not in respect to himself, yet out of a humane 
regard to such of his countrymen as may have the fortune to 
come after him; and, it is more than probable, may desire to 
hear a better and juster character of their country and 
countrymen, than he perhaps might incline to leave behind 
him. 

As we travelled along, Father White told me, that near 
the place of our quartering that night, there was a convent 
of the Carthusian order, which would be well worth my 
seeing. I was doubly glad to hear it, as it was an order 
most a stranger to me ; and as I had often heard from many 
others, most unaccountable relations of the severity of their 
way of life, and the very odd original of their institution. 

The next morning, therefore, being Sunday, we took a 
walk to the convent. It was situated at the foot of a great 
hill, having a pretty little river running before it. The hill 
w T as naturally covered with evergreens of various sorts ; but 
the very summit of the rock was so impending, that one 
would at first sight be led to apprehend the destruction of 
the convent, from the fall of it. Notwithstanding all which, 
they have very curious and well-ordered gardens ; which led 
me to observe, that, whatever men may pretend, pleasure 
was not incompatible with the most austere life. And 
indeed, if I may guess of others by this, no order in that 
church can boast of finer convents. Their chapel was com- 
pletely neat, the altar of it set out with the utmost mag- 
nificence, both as to fine paintings, and other rich adornments. 
The buildings were answerable to the rest; and, in short, 
nothing seemed omitted, that might render it beautiful or 
pleasant. 

When we had taken a full survey of all, we, not without 
some regret, returned to our very indifferent inn ; where, the 
better to pass away the time, Father White gave me an 
ample detail of the original of that order. I had beforehand 
heard somewhat of it; nevertheless, I did not care to 
interrupt him ; because I had a mind to hear how his account 
would agree with what I had already heard. 



REMARKABLE INTERMENT AT A CONVENT. 451 

Bruno, said the father, the author or founder of this order, 
was not originally of this, but of another. He had a holy 
brother of the same order, that was his cell-mate, or 
chamber-fellow, who was reputed by all that ever saw or 
knew him, for a person of exalted piety, and of a most exact 
Koly life. This man, Bruno had intimately known for many 
years ; and agreed, in his character, that general consent did 
him no more than justice, having never observed anything 
in any of his actions, that, in his opinion, could be offensive 
to Grod or man. He was perpetually at his devotions ; and 
distinguishable remarkable for never permitting anything but 
pious ejaculations to proceed out of his mouth. In short, he 
was reputed a saint upon earth. 

This man at last dies, and, according to custom, is removed 
into the chapel of the convent, and there placed with a cross 
fixed in his hands : soon after which, saying the proper 
masses for his soul, in the middle of their devotion, the dead 
man lifts up his head, and with an audible voice cried out, 
Vocatus sum. The pious brethren, as any one will easily 
imagine, were most prodigiously surprised at such an 
accident, and therefore they earnestly redoubled their prayers ; 
when, lifting up his head a second time, the dead man cried 
aloud, Judicatus sum. Knowing his former piety, the pious 
fraternity could not then entertain the least doubt of his 
felicity ; when, to their great consternation and confusion, he 
lifted up his head a third time, crying out in a terrible tone, 
Damnatus sum; upon which they incontinently removed the 
corpse out of the chapel, and threw it upon the dunghill. 

Good Bruno, pondering upon these passages, could not 
fail of drawing this conclusion: — that if a person, to all 
appearance so holy and devout, should miss of salvation, it 
behoved a wise man to contrive some way more certain to 
make his calling and election sure. To that purpose he 
instituted this strict and severe order, with an injunction to 
them, sacred as any part, that every professor should always 
wear hair-cloth next his skin ; never eat any flesh, not speak 
to one another, only, as passing by, to say, Memento mori. 

This account I found to agree pretty well with what I had 
before heard ; but at the same time, I found the redouble of 
it made but just the same impression it had at first made 
upon my heart. However, having made it my observation, 
that a spirit the least contradictory best carries a man 

G G 2 



452 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

through Spain, I kept Father White company, and in 
humour, till we arrived at Victoria ; where he added one 
thing, by way of appeadix, in relation to the Carthusians, 
that every person of the society is obliged every day to go 
into their place of burial, and take up as much earth as he 
can hold at a grasp with one hand, in order to prepare his 
grave. 

Next day we set out for Victoria. It is a sweet, delicious, 
and pleasant town. It received that name in memory of a 
considerable victory there obtained over the Moors. Leaving 
this place, I parted with Father White ; he going where his 
affairs led him, and I to make the best of my way to Bilboa. 



CHAPTER XI. 

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF BISCAY AND OTHER TOWNS ISLE OF 

CONFERENCE, AND INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE KINGS OF 

FRANCE AND SPAIN NARROW ESCAPE FROM BEING 

DROWNED TEMPEST IN THE BAY OF BISCAY, AND 

MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND 

CONCLUSION. 

Entering into Biscay, soon after I left Victoria, I was at a 
loss almost to imagine what country I was got into. By my 
long stay in Spain, I thought myself a tolerable master of 
the tongue ; yet here I found myself at the utmost loss to 
understand landlord, landlady, or any of the family. I was 
told by my muleteer, that they pretend their language, as 
they call it, has continued uncorrupted from the very 
confusion of Babel ; though, if I might freely give my opinion 
in the matter, I should rather take it to be the very corruption 
of all that confusion. Another rhodomontado they have 
(for in this they are perfect Spaniards), that neither Romans, 
Carthaginians, Vandals, Goths, or Moors, ever totally subdued 
them. And yet any man that has ever seen their country, 
might cut this knot without a hatchet, by saying truly, that 
neither Roman, Carthaginian, nor any victorious people, 
thought it worth while to make a conquest of a country so 
mountainous and so barren. 

However, Bilboa must be allowed, though not very large, 
to be a pretty, clean, and neat town. Here, as in Amsterdam, 



TOWNS OF BILBOA AND ST. SEBASTIAN. 453 

they allow neither cart nor coach to enter ; but everything 
of merchandise is drawn and carried upon sledges ; and yet 
it is a place of no small account as to trade, and especially 
for iron and wool. Here I hoped to have met with an 
opportunity of embarking for England ; but to my sorrow I 
found myself disappointed, and under that disappointment 
obliged to make the best of my way to Bayonne. 

Setting out for which place, the first town of note that 
I came to was St. Sebastian. A very clean town, and 
neatly paved ; which is no little rarity in Spain. It has a 
very good wall about it, and a pretty citadel. At this place I 
met with two English officers, who were under the same state 
with myself | one of them being a prisoner of war with me at 
Denia. They were going to Bayonne to embark for England 
as well as myself; so we agreed to set out together for Port 
Passage. The road from St. Sebastian is all over a well- 
paved stone causeway ; almost at the end whereof, there ac- 
costed us a great number of young lasses. They were all 
prettily dressed, their long hair flowing in a decent manner 
over their shoulders, and here and there decorated with rib- 
bons of various colours, which wantonly played on their backs 
with the wind. The sight surprised my lellow-travellers no 
less than me ; and the more, as they advanced directly up to 
us,, and seized our hands. But a little time undeceived us, 
and we found what they came for ; and that their contest, 
though not so robust as our oars on the Thames, was much 
of the same nature ; each contending who should have us for 
their fare. For it is here a custom of time out of mind, that 
none but young women should have the management and profit 
of that ferry. And though the ferry is over an arm of the 
sea, very broad, and sometimes very rough, those fair ferriers 
manage themselves with that dexterity, that the passage 
is very little dangerous, and in calm weather very pleasant. 
In short, we made choice of those that best pleased us ; who, 
in a grateful return, led us down to their boat under a sort of 
music, which they, walking along, made with their oars, and 
which we all thought far from being disagreeable. Thus were 
we transported over to Port Passage ; not undeservedly ac- 
counted the best harbour in all the Bay of Biscay. 

We stayed not long here after landing, resolving, if possible, 
to reach Fonterabia before night ; but all the expedition we 
could use, little availed ; for before we could reach thither, 



454 MEMOIRS X)F CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

the gates were shut, and good nature and humanity were so 
locked up with them, that all the rhetoric we were masters of 
could not prevail upon the governor to order their being 
opened; for which reason, we were obliged to take up our 
quarters at the ferry house. 

When we got up the next morning, we found the waters 
so broad, as well as rough, that we began to inquire after 
another passage ; and were answered, that at the Isle of Con- 
ierence, but a short league upwards, the passage was much 
shorter, and exposed to less danger. Such good reasons soon 
determined us : so, setting out, we got there in a very little 
time, and very soon after were landed in France. Here we 
found a house of very good entertainment ; a thing we had 
long wanted, and much lamented the want of. 

We were hardly well seated in the house, before we were 
made sensible, that it was the custom, which had made it the 
business of our host, to entertain all his guests at first coming 
in, with a prolix account of that remarkable interview between 
the two Kings of France and Spain. I speak safely now, 
as being got on French ground : for the Spaniard in his own 
country would have made me to know, that putting Spain 
after France had there been looked upon as a mere solecism 
in speech. However, having refreshed ourselves, to show 
our deference to our host's relation, we agreed to pay our re- 
spects to that famous little isle he mentioned : which, indeed, 
was the whole burthen of the design of our crafty landlord's 
relation. 

When we came there, we found it a little oval island, over- 
run with weeds, and surrounded with reeds and rushes. 
Here, said our landlord, for he went with us, upon this little 
spot, were at that juncture seen the two greatest monarchsin 
the universe. A noble pavilion was erected in the very 
middle of it, and in the middle of that was placed a very large 
oval table ; at which was the conference, from which the place 
received its title. There were two bridges raised ; one on the 
Spanish side, the passage to which was a little upon a descent 
by reason of the hills adjacent ; and the other upon the French 
side, which, as you see, was all upon a level. The music 
playing, and trumpets sounding, the two kings, upon a signal 
agreed upon, set forward at the same time ; the Spanish 
monarch handing the infanta, his daughter, to the place of 
interview. As soon as they were entered the pavilion, on each 



ST. JEAN DE LUZ. 455 

side, all the artillery fired, and both armies after that made 
their several vollies. Then the King of Spain advancing on 
his side the table with the infanta, the King of France ad- 
vanced at the same moment on the other ; till meeting, he re- 
ceived the infanta at the hands of her father, as his queen ; 
upon which, both the artillery and small arms fired as before. 
After this was a most splendid and sumptuous entertainment ; 
which being over, both kings retired into their several do- 
minions ; the King of France conducting his new queen to St. 
Jean de Luz, where the marriage was consummated ; and the 
King of Spain returning to Port Passage. 

After a relation so very inconsistent with the present state 
of the place, we took horse (for mule-mounting was now out 
of fashion), and rode to St. Jean de Luz, where we found as 
great a difference in our eating and drinking, as we had be- 
fore done in our riding. Here they might be properly called 
houses of entertainment ; though, generally speaking, till we 
came to this place, we met with very mean fare, and were 
poorly accommodated in the houses where we lodged. 

A person, that travels this way, would be esteemed a man 
of a narrow curiosity, who should not desire to see the chamber 
where Louis le Grand took his first night's lodging with his 
queen. Accordingly, when it was put into my head, out of 
an ambition to evince myself a person of taste, I asked the 
question, and the favour was granted me, with a great deal of 
French civility. Not that I found anything here, more than 
in the Isle of Conference, but what tradition only had ren- 
dered remarkable. 

St. Jean de Luz is esteemed one of the greatest village 
towns in all France. It was in the great church of this place, 
that Louis XIV., according to marriage articles, took before 
the high altar the oath of renunciation to the crown of Spain, 
by which all the issue of that marriage were debarred in- 
heritance, if oaths had been obligatory with princes. The 
natives here are reckoned expert seamen, especially in whale 
fishing. Here is a fine bridge of wood ; in the middle of which 
is a descent, by steps, into a pretty little island ; where is a 
chapel, and a palace belonging to the Bishop of Bayonne. 
Here the queen dowager of Spain often walks to divert her- 
self ; and on this bridge, and in the walks on the island, I 
had the honour to see that princess more than once. 

This villa not being above four leagues from Bayonne, we 



456 memoirs of captain cakleton. 

got there by dinner-time, where, at an ordinary of twenty 
sous, we eat and drank in plenty, and with a gusto much 
better than in any part of Spain; where, for eating much 
worse, we paid very much more. 

Bayonne is a town strong by nature ; yet the fortifications 
have been very much neglected, since the building of the cita- 
del, on the other side the river ; which not only commands 
the town but the harbour too. It is a noble fabric, fair and 
strong, and raised on the side of a hill, wanting nothing that 
art could furnish to render it impregnable. The Marshal 
Bouffiers had the care of it in its erection ; and there is a fine 
walk near it, from which he used to ' survey the workmen, 
which still carries his name. There are two noble bridges here, 
though both of wood, one over that river which runs on one 
side the town ; the other over that which divides it in the 
middle. The tide runs through both with vast rapidity ; not- 
withstanding which, ships of burthen come up, and, paying 
for it, are often fastened to the bridge, while loading or un- 
loading. While I was here, there came in four or five English 
ships laden with corn ; the first, as they told me, that had 
come in to unload there since the beginning of the war. 

On that side of the river where the new citadel is built, at 
a very little distance, lies Pont d'Esprit, a place mostly 
inhabited by Jews, who drive a great trade there, and are 
esteemed very rich, though, as in all other countries, mostly 
very roguish. Here the queen dowager of Spain has kept 
her court ever since the jealousy of the present king reclused 
her from Madrid. As aunt to his competitor Charles (now 
emperor), he apprehended her intriguing ; for which reason, 
giving her an option of retreat, that princess made choice of 
this city, much to the advantage of the place, and in all 
appearance much to her own satisfaction. She is a lady not 
of the lesser size ; and lives here in suitable splendour, and 
not without the respect due to a person of her high quality ; 
every time she goes to take the ah', the cannon of the citadel 
saluting her as she passes over the bridge ; and, to say truth, 
the country round is extremely pleasant, and abounds in 
plenty of all provisions, especially in wild fowl. Bayonne 
hams are, to a proverb, celebrated all over France. 

We waited here near five months before the expected 
transports arrived from England, without any other amuse- 
ments than such as are common to people under suspense. 



NARROW ESCAPE FROM DROWNING. 457 

Short tours will not admit of great varieties ; and much 
acquaintance could not be any way suitable to people that 
had long been in a strange country, and earnestly desired to 
return to our own. Yet one accident befel me here, that 
was nearer costing me my life, than all I had before 
encountered, either in battle or siege. 

Going to my lodgings one evening, I unfortunately met 
with an officer, who would needs have me along with him, 
aboard one of the English ships, to drink a bottle of English 
beer. He had been often invited, he said ; And I am afraid 
our countryman, continued he, will hold himself slighted if 
I delay it longer. English beer was a great rarity, and the 
vessel lay not at any great distance from my lodgings ; so 
without any farther persuasion I consented. When we came 
upon the bridge, to which the ship we were to go aboard was 
fastened, we found, as was customary, as well as necessary, 
a plank laid over from the ship, and a rope to hold by, for 
safe passage. The night was very dark, and I had cautiously 
enough taken care to provide a man with a lantern to prevent 
casualties. The man with the light went first, and out of his 
abundant complaisance, my friend, the officer, would have 
me follow the light ; but I was no sooner stept upon the • 
plank after my guide, but rope and plank gave way, and 
guide and I tumbled both together into the water. 

The tide was then running in pretty strong ; however, my 
feet in the fall touching ground, gave me an opportunity to 
recover myself a little ; at which time I catched fast hold of 
a buoy, which was placed over an anchor on one of the ships 
there riding. I held fast, till the tide, rising stronger and 
stronger, threw me oft my feet, which gave an opportunity 
to the poor fellow, our lantern-bearer, to lay hold of one of 
my legs, by which he held as fast as I by the buoy. We 
had lain thus lovingly at Hull together, struggling with 
the increasing tide, which, well for us, did not break my hold 
(for if it had, the ships, which lay breast-a-breast, had cer- 
tainly sucked us under), when several on the bridge, who 
saw us fall, brought others with lights and ropes to our 
assistance ; and especially my brother-officer, who had been 
accessary as well as spectator of our calamity ; though at 
last a very small portion of our deliverance fell to his share. 

As soon as I could feel a rope, I quitted my hold of the 
buoy; but my poor drag at my heels would not on any 



458 



MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 



account quit his hold of my leg. And as it was next to an 
impossibility, in that posture, to draw us up the bridge to 
save both, if either of us, we must still have perished, had 
not the alarm brought off a boat or two to our succour, who 
took us in. 

I was carried as fast as possible to a neighbouring house 
hard by, where they took immediate care to make a good 
fire ; and where I had not been long before our intended 
host, the master of the ship, came in very much concerned, 
and blaming us for not hailing the vessel before we made an 
attempt to enter. For, says he, the very night before, my 
vessel was robbed ; and that plank and rope were a trap 
designed for the thieves, if they came again ; not imagining 
that men in an honest way would have come on board without 
asking questions. Like the wise men of this world, I here- 
upon began to form resolutions against a thing, which was 
never again likely to happen ; and to draw inferences of 
instruction from an accident, that had not so much as a moral 
for its foundation. 

One day after this, partly out of business, and partly out 
of curiosity, I went to see the mint here ; and having taken 
notice to one of the officers, that there was a difference in the 
impress of their crown pieces, one having at the bottom the 
impress of a cow, and the other none : Sir, replied that officer, 
you are much in the right in your observation. Those that 
have the cow were not coined here, but at Paw, the chief 
city of Navarre, where they enjoy the privilege of a mint as 
well as we. And tradition tells, says he, that the reason of 
that addition to the impress was this : a certain King of 
Navarre (when it was a kingdom distinct from that of France), 
looking out of a window of the palace, spied a cow, with her 
calf standing aside her, attacked by a lion, which had got 
loose out of his menagerie. The lion strove to get the young 
calf into his paw ; the cow bravely defended her charge ; and 
so well, that the lion at last, tired and weary, withdrew, and 
left her mistress of the field of battle, and her young one. 
Ever since which, concluded the officer, by order of that 
king, the cow is placed at the bottom of the impress of all the 
money there coined. 

Whether or no my relator guessed at the moral, or whether 
it was fact, I dare not determine: but to me it seemed 
apparent, that it was no otherways intended than as an em- 



TOWNS OF BATONNE AND PAMPELONA. 459 

blematical fable, to cover and preserve the memory of the 
deliverance of Henry IV., then the young King of Navarre, 
at that eternally ignominious slaughter, the massacre of Paris. 
Many historians, their own as well as others, agree, that the 
house of Guise had levelled the malice of their design at that 
great prince. They knew him to be the lawful heir ; but as 
they knew him bred what they called a Huguenot, barbarity 
and injustice was easily concealed under the cloak of religion, 
and the good of mother-church, under the veil of ambition, 
was held sufficient to postpone the laws of God and man. 
Some of those historians have delivered it as matter of fact, 
that the conspirators, in searching after that young king, 
pressed into the very apartments of the queen his mother ; 
who, having, at the toll of the bell, and cries of the murdered, 
taken the alarm, on hearing them coming, placed herself in 
her chair, and covered the young king her son with her 
farthingale, till they were gone. By which means she found 
an opportunity to convey him to a place of more safety ; and 
so preserved him from those bloody murderers, and in them 
from the paw of the lion. This was only a private reflection 
of my own at that time ; but I think carries so great a face 
of probability, that I can see no present reason to reject it. 
And to have sought after better information from the officer 
of the mint, had been to sacrifice my discretion to my curiosity. 

While I stayed at Bayonne, the princess Ursini came thither, 
attended by some of the King of Spain's guards. She had 
been to drink the waters of some famous spa in the neighbour- 
hood, the name of which has now slipt my memory. She was 
most splendidly entertained by the queen dowager of Spain ; 
and the Mareschal de Montrevel no less signalized himself in 
his reception of that great lady, who was at that instant the 
greatest favourite in the Spanish court ; though as I have 
before related, she was some time after basely undermined by 
a creature of her own advancing. 

Bayonne is esteemed the third emporium of trade in all 
France. It was once, and remained long so, in the possession 
of the English; of which, had history been silent, the 
cathedral church had afforded evident demonstration ; being 
in every respect of the English model, and quite different to 
any of their own way of building in France. 

Pampelona is the capital city of the Spanish Navarre, 
supposed to have been built by Pompey. It is situated in a 



460 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

pleasant valley, surrounded by lofty hills. This town, 
whether famous or infamous, was the cause of the first 
institution of the order of the Jesuits : for at the siege of this 
place, Ignatius Loyola, being only a private soldier, received 
a shot in his thigh, which made him incapable of following 
that profession any longer ; upon which he set his brains to 
work, being a subtle man, and invented the order of the 
Jesuits, which has been so troublesome to the world ever 
since. 

At St. Stephen, near Lerida, an action happened between 
the English and Spaniards, in which Major-general Cunning- 
ham, bravely fighting at the head of his men, lost his life, 
being extremely much lamented. He was a gentleman of 
a great estate, yet left it to serve his country ; dulce est 
pro patria mori. 

About two leagues from Victoria, there is a very pleasant 
hermitage placed upon a small rising ground ; a murmuring 
rivulet running at the bottom, and a pretty neat chapel standing 
near it, in which I saw St. Christopher in a gigantic shape, 
having a Christo on his shoulders. The hermit was there at 
his devotion ; I asked him (though I knew it before) the 
reason why he was represented in so large a shape ? The 
hermit answered with great civility, and told me, he had his 
name from Christo Ferendo ; for when our Saviour was 
young, he had an inclination to pass a river, so St. Christopher 
took him on his shoulders in order to carry him over, and as 
the water grew deeper and deeper, so he grew higher and 
higher. 

At last we received news, that the Gloucester man-of-war, 
with two transports, was arrived at Port Passage, in order 
for the transporting of all the remaining prisoners of war into 
England. Accordingly, they marched next day, and there 
embarked. But I having before agreed with a master of a 
vessel, which was loaded with wine for Amsterdam, to set me 
ashore at Dover, stayed behind, waiting for that ship, as did 
that for a fair wind. 

In three or four days' time, a fine and fair gale presented ; 
of which the master taking due advantage, we sailed over the 
bar into the Bay of Biscay. This is with sailors, to a proverb, 
reckoned the roughest of seas ; and yet on our entrance into 
it, nothing appeared like it. It was smooth as glass ; a lady's 
face might pass for young, and in its bloom, that discovered 



TEMPEST IN THE BAY OF BISCAY, 461 

no more wrinkles : yet scarce had we sailed three leagues, 
before a prodigious fish presented itself to our view. As near 
as we could guess, it might be twenty yards in length ; and 
it lay sporting itself on the surface of the sea, a great part 
appearing out of the water. The sailors, one and all, as soon 
as they saw it, declared it the certain forerunner of a storm. 
However, our ship kept on its course, before a fine gale, till 
we had near passed over half the bay ; when, all on a sudden, 
there was such a hideous alteration, as makes nature recoil 
on the very reflection. Those seas that seemed before to smile 
upon us with the aspect of a friend, now in a moment changed 
their flattering countenance into that of an open enemy ; and 
frowns, the certain indexes of wrath, presented us with 
apparent danger, of which little on this side death could be 
the sequel. The angry waves cast themselves up into moun- 
tains, and scourged the ship on every side from poop to prow; 
such shocks from the contending wind and surges ! such falls 
from precipices of water, to dismal caverns of the same uncertain 
element ! Although the latter seemed to receive us, in order 
to screen us from the riot of the former, imagination could 
offer no other advantage than that of a winding-sheet, 
presented and prepared for our approaching fate. But why 
mention I imagination ? In me it was wholly dormant. And 
yet those sons of stormy weather, the sailors, had theirs about 
them in full stretch ; for seeing the wind and sea so very 
boisterous, they lashed the rudder of the ship, resolved to let 
her drive, and steer herself, since it was past their skill to 
steer her. This was our way of sojourning most part of that 
tedious night ; driven where the winds and waves thought fit 
to drive us, with all our sails quite lowered and flat upon the 
deck. If Ovid, in the little Archipelagian sea, could wine 
out his jam jam jacturus, &c, in this more dismal scene, and 
much more dangerous sea (the pitchlike darkness of the night 
adding to all our sad variety of woes), what words in verse or 
prose could serve to paint our passions, or our expectations ? 
Alas ! our only expectation was in the return of morning : it 
came at last; yet even slowly as it came, when come, we 
thought it come too soon, a new scene of sudden death being 
all the advantage of its first appearance. Our ship was driving 
full speed towards the breakers on the Cabritton shore, 
between Bourdeaux and Bayonne ; which filled us with ideas 
more terrible than all before, since those were past, and these 



462 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

seemingly as certain. Beside, to add to our distress, the tide 
was driving in, and consequently must drive us fast to visible 
destruction. A state so evident, that one of our sailors, whom 
great experience had rendered more sensible of our present 
danger, was preparing to save one, by lashing himself to the 
mainmast, against the expected minute of desolation. He 
was about that melancholy work, in utter despair of any 
better fortune, when, as loud as ever he could bawl, he cried 
out, A point, a point of wind ! To me, who had had too 
much of it, it appeared like the sound of the last trump ; but 
to the more intelligent crew, it had a different sound. With 
vigour and alacrity they started from their prayers, or their 
despair, and with all imaginable speed unlashed the rudder, 
and hoisted all their sails. Never sure in nature did one 
minute produce a greater scene of contraries. The more 
skilful sailors took courage at this happy presage of deliver- 
ance. And according to their expectation did it happen ; that 
heavenly point of wind delivered us from the jaws of those 
breakers, ready open to devour us ; and carrying us out to 
the much more welcome wide sea, furnished every one in the 
ship with thoughts as distant as we thought our danger. 

We endeavoured to make Port Passage ; but our ship 
became unruly, and would not answer her helm ; for which 
reason we were glad to go before the wind, and make for the 
harbour of St. Jean de Luz. This we attained without any 
great difficulty ; and to the satisfaction of all, sailors as well 
as passengers, we there cast anchor, after the most terrible 
storm, (as all the oldest sailors agreed,) and as much danger 
as ever people escaped. 

Here I took notice, that the sailors buoyed up their cables 
with hogsheads ; inquiring into the reason of which, they 
told me, that the rocks at the bottom of the harbour were by 
experience found to be so very sharp, that they would other- 
wise cut their cables asunder. Our ship was obliged to be 
drawn up into the dock to be refitted ; during which I lay in 
the town, where nothing of moment or worth reciting 
happened. 

I beg pardon for my error ; the very movements of princes 
must always be considerable, and consequently worth recital. 

While the ship lay in the dock, I was one evening walking 
upon the bridge, with the little island near it (which I have 
before spoke of), and had a little Spanish dog along with me, 



ARRIVAL IN LONDON. 463 

when at the farther end 1 spied a lady and three or four 
gentlemen in company. I kept on my pace of leisure, and 
so did they ; but when I came nearer, I found they as much 
outnumbered me in the dog, as they did in the human kind ; 
and I soon experienced to my sorrow, that their dogs, by 
their fierceness and ill-humour, were dogs of quality ; having, 
without warning, or the least declaration of war, fallen upon 
my little dog according to pristine custom, without any 
honourable regard to size, interest, or number. However, 
the good lady, who, by the privilege of her sex must be 
allowed the most competent judge of inequalities, out of an 
excess of condescension and goodness, came running to the 
relief of oppressed poor Tony : and, in courtly language, 
rated her own oppressive dogs for their great incivility to 
strangers. The dogs, in the middle of their insulting wrath, 
obeyed the lady with a vast deal of profound submission ; 
which I could not much wonder at, when I understood that 
it was a queen dowager of Spain who had chid them. 

Our ship being now repaired, and made fit to go out again 
to sea, we left the harbour of St. Jean de Luz, and, with a 
much better passage, as the last tempest was still dancing in 
my imagination, in ten days' sail we reached Dover. Here 
I landed on the last day of March, 1713, having not till then 
seen or touched English shore from the beginning of May, 
1705. 

I took coach directly for London, where, when I arrived, 
I thought myself transported into a country more foreign 
than any I had either fought or pilgrimaged in. Not foreign, 
do I mean, in respect to others, so much as to itself. I left 
it, seemingly, under a perfect unanimity : the fatal distinctions 
of Whig and Tory were then esteemed merely nominal ; and 
of no more ill consequence or danger, than a bee robbed of 
its sting. The national concern went on with vigour, and 
the prodigious success of the queen's arms left every soul 
without the least pretence to a murmur. But now, on my 
return, I found them on their old establishment, perfect 
contraries, and as unlikely to be brought to meet as direct 
angles. Some arraigning, some extolling of a peace; in 
which time has shown both were wrong, and consequently 
neither could be right in their notions of it, however an over 
prejudiced way of thinking might draw them into one or the 
other. But Whig and Tory are, in my mind, the completest 



4G4 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. 

paradox in nature ; and yet like other paradoxes, old as I 
am, I live in hope to see, before I die, those seeming con- 
traries perfectly reconciled, and reduced into one happy 
certainty, the public good. 

Whilst I stayed at Madrid, I made several visits to my old 
acquaintance general Mahoni. I remember that he told me, . 
when the Earl of Peterborow and he held a conference at 
Morvidro, his lordship used many arguments to induce him to 
leave the Spanish service. Mahoni made several excuses, 
especially that none of his religion was suffered to serve in 
the English army. My lord replied, that he would undertake 
to get him excepted by an act of parliament. I have often 
heard him speak with great respect of his lordship ; and was 
strangely surprised, that after so many glorious successes, he 
should be sent away. 

He was likewise pleased to inform me, that at the battle of 
Saragossa, it was his fortune to make some of our horse to 
give way, and he pursued them for a considerable time ; but 
at his return he saw the Spanish army in great confusion : 
but it gave him the opportunity of attacking our battery of 
guns, which he performed with great slaughter, both of gun- 
ners and matrosses •■; he at the same time inquired who it was 
that commanded there in chief. I informed him it was 
Colonel Bourguard, one that understood the economy of the 
train exceeding well. As for that, he knew nothing of ; but 
that he would vouch, he behaved himself with extraordinary 
courage, and defended the battery to the utmost extremity, 
receiving several wounds, and deserved the post in which he 
acted. A gentleman who was a prisoner at G-ualaxara, 
informed me, that he saw King Philip riding through that 
town, being only attended with one of his guards. 

Saragossa, or Caesar Augusta, lies upon the river Ebro, 
being the capital of Arragon ; it is a very ancient city, and 
contains fourteen great churches and twelve convents. The 
church of the Lady of the Pillar is frequented by pilgrims, 
almost from all countries ; it was anciently a Roman colony. 

Tibi laus, tibi honor, tibi sit gloria, gloriosa Trinitas, quia tu 
dedisti mihi hanc opportunitatem, omnes has res gestas re- 
cordandi. Nomen tuum sit benedictum, per sacula smcuiorurru. 
Amen. 

END OP THE MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETON. 



THE 

DUMB PHILOSOPHEE, 

OR 

GREAT BRITAIN'S WONDER; 

CONTAINING : 

I. A faithful and very surprising Account how Dickory 
Cronke, a Tinner's son, in the County of Cornwall, was 
born Dumb, and continued so for Fifty-eight years; and 
how, some days before he died, he came to his Speech ; 
with Memoirs of his Life, and the Manner of his Death, 

II. A Declaration of his Faith and Principles in Reli- 
gion; with a Collection of Select Meditations, com- 
posed in his Retirement. 

III. His Prophetical Observations upon the Affairs of 
Europe, more particularly of Great Britain, from 1720 to 
1729. The whole extracted from his Original Papers, 
and confirmed by unquestionable Authority. 

TO WHICH IS ANNEXED HIS ELEGY, 

WRITTEN BY A YOUNG CORNISH GENTLEMAN, OF 
EXETER COLLEGE IN OXFORD. 

WITH 

AN EPITAPH BY ANOTHER HAND. 



Non quis, sed quid." 



L ON D ON: 



Printed for and Sold by Thomas Bickerton, at 

the Crown, in Paternoster Mow. 1719. 
VOL. II. H H 



PKEFACE. 



The formality of a preface to this little book might have 
been very well omitted, if it were not to gratify the curiosity 
of some inquisitive people, who, I foresee, will be apt to 
make objections against the reality of the narrative. 

Indeed the public has too often been imposed upon by ficti- 
tious stories, and some of a very late elate, so that I think 
myself obliged by the usual respect which is paid to candid 
and impartial readers, to acquaint them, by way of introduc- 
tion, with what they are to expect, and what they may de- 
pend upon, and yet with this caution too, that it is an indica- 
tion of ill nature or ill manners, if not both, to pry into a 
secret that is industriously concealed. 

However, that there may be nothing wanting on my part, 
I do hereby assure the reader, that the papers from whence 
the following sheets were extracted, are now in town, in the 
custody of a person of unquestionable reputation, who, I will 
be bold to say, will not only be ready, but proud, to produce 
them upon a good occasion, and that I think is as much 
satisfaction as the nature of this case requires. 

As to the performance, it can signify little now to make an 
apology upon that account, any farther than this, that if the 
reader pleases he may take notice that what he has now 
before him was collected from a large bundle of papers, most 
of which were writ in shorthand, and very ill-digested. 
However, this may be relied upon, that though the language 

h h 2 



.468 



PREFACE. 



is something altered, and now and then a word thrown in to 
help the expression, yet strict care has been taken to speak 
the author's mind, and keep as close as possible to the mean- 
ing of the original. For the design, I think there is nothing 
need be said in vindication of that. Here is a dumb philo- 
sopher introduced to a wicked and degenerate generation, as 
a proper emblem of virtue and morality ; and if the world 
could be persuaded to look upon him with candour and im- 
partiality, and then to copy after him, the editor has gained 
his end, and would think himself sufficiently recompensed for 
his present trouble. 




DICKO 
THE DUMB 

GREAT BRITAIN'F^OT^R. 



PART I. 

Among the many strange and surprising events that help to 
fill the accounts of this last century, I know none that merit 
more an entire credit, or are more fit to be preserved and 
handed to posterity than those I am now going to lay before 
the public. 

Dickory Cronke, the subject of the following narrative, 
was born at a little hamlet, near St. Columb, in Cornwall, 
on* the 29th of May, 1660, being the day and year in which 
King Charles the Second was restored. His parents were of 
mean extraction, but honest, industrious people, and well 
beloved in their neighbourhood. His father's chief business 
was to work at the tin mines ; his mother stayed at home to 
look after the children, of which they had several living at 
the same time. Our Dickory was the youngest, and being 
but a sickly child, had always a double portion of her care 
and tenderness. 

It was upwards of three years before it was discovered 
that he was born dumb, the knowledge of which at first gave 
his mother great uneasiness, but finding soon after that he 
had his hearing, and all his other senses to the greatest per- 
fection, her grief began to abate, and she resolved to have 
him brought up as well as their circumstances and his capa- 
city would permit. 

As he grew, notwithstanding his want of speech, he every 
day gave some instance of a ready genius, and a genius much 
superior to the country children, insomuch that several gen- 



47 r ) DICKORY CRONKE. 

tlemen in the neighbourhood took particular notice of him, 
and would often call him Restoration Dick, and give him 
money, &c. 

When he came to be eight years of age, his mother agreed 
with a person in the next village, to teach him to read and 
write, both which, in a very short time, he acquired to such 
perfection, especially the latter, that he not only taught his 
own brothers and sisters, but likewise several young men 
and women in the neighbourhood, which often brought him 
in small sums, which he always laid out in such necessaries 
as he stood most in need of. 

In this state he continued till he was about twenty, and 
then he began to reflect how scandalous it was for a young 
man of his age and circumstances to live idle at home, and 
so resolves to go with his father to the mines, to try if he 
could get something towards the support of himself and the 
family; but being of a tender constitution, and often sick, he 
soon perceived that sort of business *was too hard for him, so 
was forced to return home and continue in his former station ; 
upon which he grew exceeding melancholy, which his mother 
observing, she comforted him in the best manner she could, 
telling him that if it should please God to take her away, she 
had something left in store for him, which would preserve 
him against public want. 

This kind assurance from a mother whom he so dearly 
loved gave him some, though not an entire satisfaction ; how- 
ever, he resolves to acquiesce under it till Providence should 
order something for hun more to his content and advantage, 
which, in a short time happened according to his wish. The 
manner was thus : — 

One Mr. Owen Parry, a Welsh gentleman of good repute, 
coming from Bristol to Padstow, a little seaport in the county 
of Cornwall, near the place where Dickory dwelt, and hear- 
ing much of this dumb man's perfections, would needs have 
him sent for ; and finding, by his significant gestures and all 
outward appearances that he much exceeded the character 
that the country gave of him, took a mighty liking to him, 
insomuch that he told him, if he would go with him into 
Pembrokeshire, he would be kind to him, and take care of 
him as long as he lived. 

This kind and unexpected offer was so welcome to poor 
Dickory, that without any farther consideration, he got a pen 



LOSES HIS MASTER AND MISTRESS. 471 

and ink and writ a note, and in a very handsome and sub- 
missive manner returned him thanks for his favour, assuring 
him he would do his best to continue and improve it ; and 
that he would be ready to wait upon him whenever he should 
be pleased to command. 

To shorten the account as much as possible, all things were 
concluded to their mutual satisfaction, and in about a fort- 
night's time they set forward for Wales, where Dickory, not- 
withstanding his dumbness, behaved himself with so much 
diligence and affability, that he not only gained the love of 
the family where he lived, but of everybody round him. 

In this station he continued till the death of his master, 
which happened about twenty years afterwards ; in all which 
time, as has been confirmed by several of the family, he was 
never observed to be any ways disguised by drinking, or to 
be guilty of any of the follies and irregularities incident 
to servants in gentlemen's houses. On the contrary, when he 
had any spare time, Jii§ constant custom was to retire with 
some good book into a private place within call, and there 
employ himself in reading, and then writing down his 
observations upon what he read,* ~ -'j^- 

After the death of his master, whose loss afflicted him to 
the last degree, one Mrs. Mary Mordant, a gentlewoman of 
great virtue and piety, and a* Very goo'd fortune, took him into 
her service, and carried him with her, first to Bath, and then 
to Bristol, where, after a lingering digfeaiper, which continued 
for about four years, she died likewise/ , 

Upon the loss of his mistoes^DicKory grew again exceed- 
ing melancholy and disconsolate; at length, reflecting that 
death is but a common debt which all mortals owe to nature, 
and must be paid sooner or later, he became a little better 
satisfied, and so determines to get together what he had 
saved in his service, and tb.en to' return to his native country, 
and there finish his life in privacy and retirement. 

Having been, as has beeii mentioned, about twenty-four 
years a servant, and having,* in the interim, received two 
legacies, viz., one of thirty pounds, left him by his master, 
and another of fifteen poujidjs by his mistress, and being 
always very frugal, he backgot by him in the whole upwards 
of sixty pounds. Thispthinks he, with prudent management, 
will be enough to support me,, as long as I live, and so I'll 



472 DICKORY CRONKE. 

e'en lay aside all thoughts of future business, and make the 
best of my way to Cornwall, and there find out some safe and 
solitary retreat, where I may have liberty to meditate and 
make my melancholy observations upon the several occurrences 
of human life. 

This resolution prevailed so far, that no time was let slip 
to get everything in readiness to go with the first ship. As 
to his money, he always kept that locked up by him, unless 
he sometimes lent it to a friend without interest, for he had 
a mortal hatred to all sorts of usury or extortion. His 
books, of which he had a considerable quantity, and some of 
them very good ones, together with his other equipage, he 
got packed up, that nothing might be wanting against the 
lirst opportunity. 

In a few days he heard of a vessel bound to Padstow, the 
very port he wished to go to, being within four or five miles 
of the place where he was born. When he came thither, 
which was in less than a week, his first business was to 
inquire after the state of his family. It was some time 
before he could get any information of them, until an old 
man that knew his father and mother, and remembered they 
had a son was born dumb, recollected him, and after a great 
deal of difficulty, made him understand that all his family 
except his youngest sister were dead, and that she was a 
widow, and lived at a little town called St. Helen's, about 
ten miles farther in the country. 

This doleful news, we must imagine, must be extremely 
shocking, and add a new sting to his former affliction ; and 
here it was that he began to exercise the philosopher, and 
to demonstrate himself both a wise and a good man. All 
these things, thinks he, are the will of Providence, and must 
not be disputed; and so he bore up under them with an 
entire resignation, resolving that, as soon as he could find a 
place where he might deposit his trunk and boxes with 
safety, he would go to St. Helen's in quest of his sister. 

How his sister and he met, and how transported they were 
to see each other after so long an interval, I think is not 
very material. It is enough for the present purpose that 
Dickory soon recollected his sister, and she him ; and after a 
great many endearing tokens of love and tenderness, he 
wrote to her, telling her that he believed Providence had 



CONSTANT PRACTICE AND REGULAR MANAGEMENT. 473 

bestowed on him as much as would support him as long as 
he lived, and that if she thought proper he would come and 
spend the remainder of his days with her. 

The good woman no sooner read his proposal than she 
accepted it, adding, withal, that she could wish her enter- 
tainment was better; but if he would accept of it as it was, 
she would do her best to make everything easy, and that he 
should be welcome upon his own terms, to stay with her as 
long as he pleased. 

This affair being so happily settled to his full satisfaction, 
he returns to Padstow to fetch the things he had left behind 
him, and the next day came back to St. Helen's, where, 
according to his own proposal, he continued to the day of 
his death, which happened upon the 29th of May, 1718, 
about the same hour in which he was born. 

Having thus given a short detail of the several periods of 
his life, extracted chiefly from the papers which he left 
behind him, I come in the next place to make a few obser- 
vations how he managed himself and spent his time toward 
the latter part of it. 

His constant practice, both winter and summer, was to 
rise and set with the sun ; and if the weather would permit, 
he never failed to walk in some unfrequented place, for three 
hours, both morning and evening, and there it is supposed he 
composed the following meditations. The chief part of his 
sustenance was milk, with a little bread boiled in it, of 
which in the morning, after his walk, he would eat the 
quantity of a pint, and sometimes more. Dinners he never 
eat any ; and at night he would only have a pretty large 
piece of bread, and drink a draught of good spring water ; 
and after this method he lived during the whole time he was 
at St. Helen's. It is observed of him that he never slept 
out of a bed, nor never lay awake in one ; which I take to 
be an argument, not only of a strong and healthful con- 
stitution, but of a mind composed and calm, and entirely 
free from the ordinary disturbances of human life. He never 
gave the least signs of complaint or dissatisfaction at any- 
thing, unless it was when he heard the tinners swear, or saw 
them drunk ; and then, too, he would get out of the way as 
soon as he had let them see, by some significant signs, how 
scandalous and ridiculous they made themselves ; and against 
the next time he met them, would be sure to have a paper 



474 DICKORY CRONKE. 

ready written, wherein lie would represent the folly of 
drunkenness, and the dangerous consequences that generally 
attended it. 

Idleness was his utter aversion, and if at any time he had 
finished the business of the day, and was grown weary of 
reading and writing, in which he daily spent six hours at least, 
he would certainly find something either within doors or 
without, to employ himself. 

Much might be said both with regard to the wise and 
regular management, and the prudent methods he took to 
spend his time well towards the declension of his life ; but, as 
his history may perhaps be shortly published at large by a 
better hand, I shall only observe in the general, that he was 
a person of great wisdom and sagacity. He understood nature 
beyond the ordinary capacity, and, if he had had a competency 
of learning suitable to his genius, neither this nor the former 
ages would have produced a better philosopher or a greater 
man. 

I come next to speak of the manner of his death and the 
consequences thereof, which are, indeed, very surprising, and, 
perhaps, not altogether unworthy a general observation. I 
shall relate them as briefly as I can, and leave every one to 
believe or disbelieve as he thinks proper. 

Upon the 26th of May, 1718, according to his usual 
method, about four in the afternoon, he went out to take his 
evening walk ; but before he could reach the place he intended, 
he was siezed with an apoplectic fit, which only gave him 
liberty to sit down under a tree, where, in an instant, he was 
deprived of all manner of sense and motion, and so he con- 
tinued, as appears by his own confession afterwards, for more 
than fourteen hours. 

His sister, who knew how exact he was in all his methods, 
finding him stay a considerable time beyond the usual hour, 
concludes that some misfortune must needs have happened to 
him, or he would certainly have been at home before. In 
short, she went immediately to all the places he was wont to 
frequent, but nothing could be heard or seen of him till the 
next morning, when a young man, as he was going to work, 
discovered him, and went home and told his sister that her 
brother lay in such a place, under a tree, and, as he believed, 
had been robbed and murdered. 

The poor woman, who had all night been under the most 



WONDERFUL RECOVERY OF SPEECH. 475 

dreadful apprehensions, was now frightened and confounded 
to the last degree. However, recollecting herself, and finding 
there was no remedy, she got two or three of her neighbours 
to bear her company, and so hastened with the young man to 
the tree, where she found her brother lying in the same posture 
that he had described. 

The dismal object at first view startled and surprised 
everybody present, and filled them full of different notions 
and conjectures. But some of the company going nearer to 
him, and finding that he had lost nothing, and that there were 
no marks of any violence to be discovered about him, they 
conclude that it must be an apoplectic or some other sudden 
fit that had surprised him in his walk, upon which his sister 
and the rest began to feel his hands and face, and observing 
that he was still warm, and that there were some symptoms 
of life yet remaining, they conclude that the best way was to 
carry him home to bed, which was accordingly done with 
the utmost expedition. 

When they had got him into the bed, nothing was omitted 
that they could think of to bring him to himself, but still he 
continued utterly insensible for about six hours. At the sixth 
hour's end he began to move a little, and in a very short 
time was so far recovered, to the great astonishment of every- 
body about him, that he was able to look up, and to make a 
sign to his sister to bring him a cup of water. 

After he had drunk the water he soon perceived that all 
his faculties were returned to their former stations, and 
though his strength was very much abated by the length 
and rigour of the fit, yet his intellects were as strong and 
vigorous as ever. 

His sister observing him to look earnestly upon the com- 
pany, as if he had something extraordinary to communicate to 
them, fetched him a pen and ink and a sheet of paper, which, 
after a short pause, he took, and wrote as follows : — 

" Dear sister, 
" I have now no need of pen, ink, and paper, to tell you 
my meaning. I find the strings that bound up my tongue, 
and hindered me from speaking, are unloosed, and I have 
words to express myself as freely and distinctly as any 
other person. From whence this strange and unexpected 
event should proceed, I must not pretend to say, any 



476 DICKORY CRONKIS. 

farther than this, that it is doubtless the hand of Providence 
that has done it, and in that I ought to acquiesce. Pray let 
me be alone for two or three hours, that I may be at liberty 
to compose myself, and put my thoughts in the best order I 
can before I leave them behind me." 

The poor woman, though extremely startled at what her 
brother had written, yet took care to conceal it from the 
neighbours, who, she knew, as well as she, must be mightily 
surprised at a thing so utterly unexpected. Says she, my 
brother desires to be alone ; I believe he may have something 
in his mind that disturbs him. Upon which the neighbours 
took their leave and returned home, and his sister shut the 
door, and left him alone to his private contemplations. 

After the company were withdrawn he fell into a sound 
sleep, which lasted from two till six, and his sister, being 
apprehensive of the return of his fit, came to the bedside, 
and, asking softly if he wanted anything, he turned about to 
her and spoke to this effect : Dear sister, you see me not only 
recovered out of a terrible fit, but likewise that I have the 
liberty of speech, a blessing that I have been deprived of 
almost sixty years, and I am satisfied you are sincerely joyful 
to find me in the state I now am in ; but, alas ! it is but a 
mistaken kindness. These are things but of short duration, 
and if they were to continue for a hundred years longer, I 
can't see how I should be anyways the better. 

I know the world too well to be fond of it, and am fully 
satisfied that the difference between a long and a short life is 
insignificant, especially when I consider the accidents and 
company I am to encounter. Do but look seriously and 
impartially upon the astonishing notion of time and eternity, 
what an immense deal has run out already, and how infinite 
it is still in the future ; do but seriously and deliberately con- 
sider this, and you will find, upon the whole, that three days 
and three ages of life come much to the same measure and 
reckoning. 

As soon as he had ended his discourse upon the vanity and 
uncertainty of human life, he looked steadfastly upon her. 
Sister, says he, I conjure you not to be disturbed at what I am 
going to tell you, which you will undoubtedly find to be true 
in every particular. I perceive my glass is run, and I have 
now no more to do in this world but to take my leave of it ; 



GOOD ADVICE TO HIS SISTER AND FRIENDS. 477 

for to-morrow about this time my speech will be again taken 
from me, and, in a short time, my fit will return ; and the 
next day, which I understand is the day on which I came 
into this troublesome world, I shall exchange it for another, 
where, for the future, I shall for ever be free from all manner 
of sin and sufferings. 

The good woman would have made him a reply, but he 
prevented her by telling her he had no time to hearken to 
unnecessary complaints or animadversions. I have a great 
many things in my mind, says he, that require a speedy and 
serious consideration. The time I have to stay is but short, 
and I have a great deal of important business to do in it. 
Time and death are both in my view, and seem both to call 
aloud to me to make no delay. I beg of you, therefore, not 
to disquiet yourself or me. What must be, must be. The 
decrees of Providence are eternal and unalterable ; why, then, 
should we torment ourselves about that which we cannot 
remedy ? 

I must confess, my dear sister, I owe you many obligations 
for your exemplary fondness to me, and do solemnly assure 
you I shall retain the sense of them to the last moment. All 
that I have to request of you is, that I may be alone for this 
night. I have it in my thoughts to leave some short observa- 
tions behind me, and likewise to discover some things of great 
weight which have been revealed to me, which may perhaps 
be of some use hereafter to you and your friends. What 
credit they may meet with I cannot say, but depend the con- 
sequence, according to their respective periods, will account 
for them, and vindicate them against the supposition of falsity 
and mere suggestion. 

Upon this, his sister left him till about four in the morning, 
when eoming to his bedside to know if he wanted anything, 
and how he had rested, he made her this answer ; I have been 
taking a cursory view of my life, and though I find myself 
exceedingly deficient in several particulars, yet I bless God I 
cannot find I have any just grounds to suspect my pardon. 
In short, says he, I have spent this night with more inward 
pleasure and true satisfaction than ever I spent a night 
through the whole course of my life. 

After he had concluded what he had to say upon the 
satisfaction that attended an innocent and well-spent life, and 
observed what a mighty consolation it was to persons, not 



478 DICKORY CRONKE. 

only under the apprehension, but even in the very agonies of 
death itself, he desired her to bring him his usual cup of water, 
and then to help him on with his clothes, that he might 
sit up, and so be in a better posture to take his leave of her 
and her friends. 

When she had taken him up, and placed him at a table, 
where he usually sat, he desired her to bring him his box of 
papers, and after he had collected those he intended should be 
preserved, he ordered her to bring a candle, that he might see 
the rest burnt. The good woman seemed at first to oppose 
the burning of his papers, till he told her they were only use- 
less trifles, some unfinished observations which he had made in 
his youthful days, and were not fit to be seen by her, or any- 
body that should come after him. 

After he had seen his papers burnt, and placed the rest in 
their proper order, and had likewise settled all his other 
affairs, which was only fit to be done between himself and 
his sister, he desired her to call two or three of the most 
reputable neighbours, not only to be witnesses of his will, but 
likewise to hear what he had farther to communicate before 
the return of his fit, which he expected very speedily. 

His sister, who had beforehand acquainted two or three of 
her confidants with all that had happened, was very much 
rejoiced to hear her brother make so unexpected a concession ; 
and accordingly, without any delay or hesitation, went directly 
into the neighbourhood, and brought home her two select 
friends, upon whose secrecy and sincerity she knew she might 
depend upon all accounts. 

In her absence he felt several symptoms of the approach 
of his fit, which made him a little uneasy, lest it should 
entirely seize him before he had perfected his will, but that 
apprehension was quickly removed by her speedy return. 
After she had introduced her friends into his chamber, he 
proceeded to express himself in the following manner ; Dear 
sister, you now see your brother upon the brink of eternity ; 
and as the words of dying persons are commonly the most 
regarded, and make deepest impressions, I cannot suspect but 
you will suffer the few I am about to say to have always 
some place in your thoughts, that they may be ready for you 
to make use of upon any occasion. 

Do not be fond of anything on this side of eternity, or 
suffer your interest to incline you to break your word, quit 



MYSTERIOUSLY BECOMES AGAIN DUMB. 479 

your modesty, or to do anything that will not bear the light, 
and look the world in the face. For be assured of this ; the 
person that values the virtue of his mind and the dignity of 
his reason, is always easy and well fortified both against 
death and misfortune, and is perfectly indifferent about the 
length or shortness of his life. Such a one is solicitous 
about nothing but his own conduc t, and for fear he should be 
deficient in the duties of religion, and the respective functions 
of reason and prudence. 

Always go the nearest way to work. Now, the nearest 
way through all the business of human life, are the paths of 
religion and honesty, and keeping those as directly as you 
can, you avoid all the dangerous precipices that often lie in 
the road, and sometimes block up the passage entirely. 

Remember that life was but lent at first, and that the 
remainder is more than you have reason to expect, and 
consequently ought to be managed with more than ordinary 
diligence. A wise man spends every day as if it were his 
"■last ; his hourglass is always in his hand, and he is never 
guilty of sluggishness or insincerity. 

He was about to proceed, when a sudden symptom of the 
return of his fit put him in mind that it was time to get his 
will witnessed, which was no sooner done but he took it up 
and gave it to his sister, telling her that though all he had 
was hers of right, yet he thought it proper, to prevent even 
a possibility of a dispute, to write down his mind in the 
nature of a will, wherein I have given you, says he, the little 
that I have left, except my books and papers, which, as soon 
as I am dead, I desire may be delivered to Mr. Anthony 
Barlow, a near relation of my worthy master, Mr. Owen 
Parry. 

This Mr. Anthony Barlow was an old contemplative 
Welsh gentleman, who, being under some difficulties in his 
own country, was forced to come into Cornwall and take 
sanctuary among the tinners. Dickory, though he kept him- 
self as retired as possible, happened to meet him one day 
upon his walks, and presently remembered that he was the 
very person that used frequently to come to visit his master 
while he lived in Pembrokeshire, and so went to him, and by 
.signs made him understand who he was. 

The old gentleman, though at first surprised at this un- 
expected interview, soon recollected that he had formerly seen 



480 DICKORY CRONKE. 

at Mr. Parry's a dumb man, whom they used to call the dumb 
philosopher, so concludes immediately that consequently this 
must be he. In short, they soon made themselves known to 
each other ; and from that time contracted a strict friendship 
and a correspondence by letters, which for the future they 
mutually managed with the greatest exactness and familiarity. 

But to leave this as a matter not much material, and to 
return to our narrative. By this time Dickory's speech began 
to falter, which his sister observing, put him in mind that he 
would do well to make some declaration of his faith and 
principles of religion, because some reflections had been made 
upon him upon the account of his neglect, or rather his refusal, 
to appear at any place of public worship. 

" Dear sister," says he, ''you observe very well, and I wish 
the continuance of my speech for a few moments, that I might 
make an ample declaration upon that account. But I find that 
annot be ; my speech is leaving me so fast that I can only 
tell you that I have always lived, and now die, an unworthy 
member of the ancient catholic and apostolic church ; and as 
to my faith and principles, I refer you to my papers, which, I 
hope, will in some measure vindicate me against the reflections 
you mention." 

He had hardly finished his discourse to his sister and her 
two friends, and given some short directions relating to his 
burial, but his speech left him ; and what makes the thing 
the more remarkable, it went away, in all appearance, with- 
out giving him any sort of pain or uneasiness. 

When he perceived that his speech was entirely vanished, 
and that he was again in his original state of dumbness, he 
took his pen as formerly and wrote to his sister, signifying 
that whereas the sudden loss of his speech had deprived him 
of the opportunity to speak to her and her friends what he 
intended, he would leave it for them in writing, and so desired 
he might not be disturbed till the return of his fit, which he 
expected in six hours at farthest. According to his desire 
they all left him, and then, with the greatest resignation 
imaginable, he wrote down the meditations following : 



ABSTRACT OP FAITH, ETC. 481 



PART n. 

An Abstract of his Faith, and the Principles of his Religion, $-c, 
which begins thus : 

Dear Sister ; I thank you for putting me in mind to make 
a declaration of my faith, and the principles of my religion. 
I find, as you very well observe, I have been under some 
reflections upon that account, and therefore I think it highly 
requisite that I set that matter right in the first place. To 
begin, therefore, with my faith, in which I intend to be as 
short and as comprehensive as I can : 

1. I most firmly believe that it was the eternal will of God, 
and the result of his infinite wisdom, to create a world, and 
for the glory of his majesty to make several sorts of creatures 
in order and degree one after another ; that is to say, angels, 
or pure immortal spirits ; men, consisting of immortal spirits 
and matter, having rational and sensitive souls ; brutes, having 
mortal and sensitive souls ; and mere vegetatives, such as 
trees, plants, &c. ; and these creatures so made do, as it were, 
clasp the higher and lower world together. 

2. I believe the holy Scriptures, and everything therein 
contained, to be the pure and essential word of God ; and that, 
according to these sacred writings, man, the lord and prince 
of the creation, by his disobedience in Paradise, forfeited his 
innocence and the dignity of his nature, and subjected him- 
self and all his posterity to sin and misery. 

3. I believe and am fully and entirely satisfied, that God 
the Father, out of his infinite goodness and compassion to 
mankind, was pleased to send his only Son, the second person 
in the holy and undivided Trinity, to meditate for him, and 
to procure his redemption and eternal salvation. 

4. I believe that God the Son, out of his infinite love, and 
for the glory of the Deity, was pleased voluntarily and freely 
to descend from heaven, and to take our nature upon him, 
and to lead an exemplary life of purity, holiness, and perfect 
obedience, and at last to suffer an ignominious death upon the 
cross, for the sins of the whole world, and to rise again the 
third day for our justification. 

5. I believe that the Holy Ghost out of his infinite good* 

VOL. II. I I 



482 DICKORY CRONKE. 

ness was pleased to undertake the office of sanctifying us with 
his divine grace, and thereby assisting us with faith to believe, 
will to desire, and power to do all those things that are required 
of us in this world, in order to entitle us to the blessings of 
just men made perfect in the world to come. 

6. I believe that these three persons are of equal power, 
majesty, and duration, and that the Godhead of the Father, 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one, and that they 
are equally uncreate, incomprehensible, eternal, and almighty; 
and that none is greater or less than the other, but that every 
one hath one and the same divine nature and perfections. 

These, sister, are the doctrines which have been received 
and practised by the best men of every age, from the beginning 
of the Christian religion to this day, and it is upon this I 
ground my faith and hopes of salvation, not doubting but, if 
my life and practice have been answerable to them, that I 
shall be quickly translated out of this kingdom of darkness, 
out of this world of sorrow, vexation and confusion, into that 
blessed kingdom, where I shall cease to grieve and to suffer, 
and shall be happy to all eternity. 

As to my principles in religion, to be as brief as I can, I 
declare myself to be a member of Christ's church, which I 
take to be a universal society of all Christian people, distributed 
under lawful governors and pastors into particular churches, 
holding communion with each other in all the essentials of the 
Christian faith, worship, and dicipline ; and among these I 
look upon the Church of England to be the chief and best 
constituted. 

The Church of England is doubtless the great bulwark of 
the ancient Catholic or Apostolic faith all over the world ; a 
church that has all the spiritual advantages that the nature 
of a church is capable of. From the doctrine and principles 
of the Church of England, we are taught loyalty to our prince, 
fidelity to our country, and justice to all mankind ; and there- 
fore, as I look upon this to be one of the most excellent 
branches of the Church Universal, and stands, as it were, 
between superstition and hypocrisy, I therefore declare, for 
the satisfaction of you and your friends, as I have always 
lived so I now die, a true and sincere, though a most unworthy 
member of it. And as to my discontinuance of my attendance 
at the public worship, I refer you to my papers, which I have 
left with my worthy friend, Mr. Barlow. And thus, my dear 



MEDITATIONS AND OBSERVATIONS. 483 

ister, I have given you a short account of my faith, and the 
principles of my religion. I come, in the next place, to lay 
before you a few meditations and observations I have at 
several times collected together, more particularly those since 
ny retirement to St. Helen's. 



Meditations and Observations relating to the Conduct of Human 
Life in 



1. Remember how often you have neglected the great 
duties of religion and virtue, and slighted the opportunities 
that Providence has put into your hands ; and, withal, that 
you have a set period assigned you for the management of the 
affairs of human life ; and then reflect seriously that, unless 
you resolve immediately to improve the little remains, the 
whole must necessarily slip away insensibly, and then you are 
lost beyond recovery. 

2. Let an unaffected gravity, freedom, justice, and sincerity 
shine through all your actions, and let no fancies and chimeras 
give the least check to those excellent qualities. This is an 
easy task, if you will but suppose everything you do to be your 
last, and if you can keep your passions and appetites from 
crossing your reason. Stand clear of rashness, and have no- 
thing of insincerity or self-love to infect you. 

3. Manage all your thoughts and actions with such pru- 
dence and circumspection as if you were sensible you were 
just going to step into the grave. A little thinking will show 
a man the vanity and uncertainty of all sublunary things, and 
enable him to examine maturely the manner of dying ; which, 
if duly abstracted from the terror of the idea, will appear no- 
thing more than an unavoidable appendix of life itself, and a 
pure natural action. 

4. Consider that ill-usage from some sort of people is in a 
manner necessary, and therefore do not be disquieted about 
it, but rather conclude that you and your enemy are both 
marching off the stage together, and that in a little time your 
very memories will be extinguished. 

5. Among your principal observations upon human life, 
let it be always one to take notice what a great deal both of 
time and ease that man gains who is not troubled with the 
spirit of curiosity, who lets his neighbours affairs alone, and 

i i 2 



484 DICKORY CRONKE. 

confines his inspections to himself, and only takes care of 
honesty and a good conscience. 

6. If you would live at your ease, and as much as possible 
be free from the incumbrances of life, manage but a few 
things at once, and let those, too, be such as are absolutely 
necessary. By this rule you will draw the bulk of your 
business into a narrow compass, and have the double pleasure 
of making your actions good, and few into the bargain. 

7. He that torments himself because things do not happen 
just as he would have them, is but a sort of ulcer in the 
world ; and he that is selfish, narrow-souled, and sets up for 
a separate interest, is a kind of voluntary outlaw, and disin- 
corporates himself from mankind. 

8. Never think anything below you which reason and you) 
own circumstances require, and never suffer yourself to be 
deterred by the ill-grounded notions of censure and reproach ; 
but when honesty and conscience prompt you to say or do 
anything, do it boldly ; never balk your resolution or start at 
the consequence. 

9. If a man does me an injury, what is that to me ? It is 
his own action, and let him account for it. As for me, I 
am in my proper station, and only doing the business that 
Providence has allotted; and withal, I ought to consider that 
the best way to revenge, is not to imitate the injury. 

10. When you happen to be ruffled and put out of humour 
by any cross accident, retire immediately into your reason, 
and do not suffer your passion to overrule you a moment ; for 
the sooner you recover yourself now, the better you will 
be able to guard yourself for the future. 

11. Do not be like those ill-natured people that, though 
they do not love to give a good word to their contemporaries, 
yet are mighty fond of their own commendations. This 
argues a perverse and unjust temper, and often exposes the 
authors to scorn and contempt. 

12. If any one convinces you of an error, change your 
opinion and thank him for it : truth and information are your 
business, and can never hurt anybody. On the contrary, he 
that is proud and stubborn, and wilfully continues in a mis- 
take, it is he that receives the mischief. 

13. Because you see a thing difficult, do not instantly con- 
clude it to be impossible to master it. Diligence and industry 
are seldom defeated. Look, therefore, narrowly into the 



MEDITATIONS AND OBSERVATIONS. 485 

thing itself, and what you observe proper and practicable in 
another, conclude likewise within your own power. 

14. The principal business of human life is run through 
within the short compass of twenty-four hours ; and when 
you have taken a deliberate view of the present age, you have 
seen as much as if you had begun with the world, the rest 
being nothing else but an endless round of the same thing 
over and over again. 

15. Bring your will to your fate, and suit your mind to 
your circumstances. LoVe your friends and forgive your 
enemies, and do justice to all mankind, and you will be secure 
to make your passage easy, and enjoy most of the comforts 
that human life is capable to afford you. 

16. When you have a mind to entertain yourself in your 
retirements, let it be with the good qualifications of your 
friends and acquaintance. Think with pleasure and satis- 
faction upon the honour and bravery of one, the modesty of 
another, the generosity of a third, and so on ; there being no- 
thing more pleasant and diverting than the lively images and 
the advantages of those we love and converse with. 

17. As nothing can deprive you of the privileges of your 
nature, or compel you to act counter to your reason, so no- 
thing can happen to you but what comes from Providence, 
and consists with the interest of the universe. 

18. Let people's tongues and actions be what they will, 
your business is to have honour and honesty in your view. 
Let them rail, revile, censure, and condemn, or make you the 
subject of their scorn and ridicule, what does it all signify? 
You have one certain remedy against all their malice and 
folly, and that is, to live so that nobody shall believe them. 

13. Alas, poor mortals ! did we rightly consider our own 
state and condition, we should find it would not be long 
before we have forgot all the world, and to be even, that all 
the world will have forgot us likewise. 

20. He that would recommend himself to the public, let 
him do it by the candour and modesty of his behaviour, and 
by a generous indifference to external advantages. Let him 
love mankind, and resign to Providence, and then his works 
will follow him, and his good actions will praise him in the 
gate. 

21. When you hear a discourse, let your understanding, as 
far as possible, keep pace with it, and lead you forward to 



486 DICKORY CRONKE. 

those things which fall most within the compass of your own 
observations. 

22. When vice and treachery shall be rewarded, and 
virtue and ability slighted and discountenanced; when minis- 
ters of state shall rather fear man than God, and to screen 
themselves run into parties and factions ; when noise and 
clamour, and scandalous reports shall carry everything before 
them, it is natural to conclude that a nation in such a state 
of infatuation stands upon the brink of destruction, and 
without the intervention of some unforeseen accident, must 
be inevitably ruined. 

23. When a prince is guarded by wise and honest men, 
and when all public officers are sure to be rewarded if they 
do well, and punished if they do evil, the consequence is 
plain ; justice and honesty will flourish, and men will be 
always contriving, not for themselves, but for the honour and 
interest of their king and country. 

24. Wicked men may sometimes go unpunished in this 
world, but wicked nations never do ; because this world is 
the only place of punishment of wicked nations, though not 
for private and particular persons. 

25. An administration that is merely founded upon human 
policy must be always subject to human chance; but that 
which is founded on the divine wisdom can no more miscarry 
than the government of heaven. To govern by parties and 
factions is the advice of an atheist, and sets up a government 
by the spirit of Satan. In such a government the prince can 
never be secure under the greatest promises, since, as men's 
interest changes, so will their duty and affections likewise. 

26. It is a very ancient observation, and a very true one, 
that people generally despise where they flatter, and cringe 
to those they design to betray ; so that truth and ceremony 
are, and always will be, two distinct things. 

27. When you find your friend in an error, undeceive him 
with secrecy and civility, and let him see his oversight first 
by hints and glances ; and if you cannot convince him, leave 
him with respect, and lay the fault upon your own management. 

28. When you are under the greatest vexations, then 
consider that human life lasts but for a moment ; and do not 
forget but that you are like the rest of the world, and faulty your- 
self in many instances ; and withal, remember that anger and 
impatience often prove more mischievous than the provocation. 



MEDITATIONS AND OBSERVATIONS. 487 

29. Gentleness and good humour are invincible, provided 
they are without hypocrisy and design ; they disarm the 
most barbarous and savage tempers, and make even malice 
ashamed of itself. 

30. In all the actions of life let it be your first and prin- 
cipal care to guard against anger on the one hand, and 
flattery on the other, for they are both unserviceable qualities, 
and do a great deal of mischief in the government of human life. 

31. When a man turns knave or libertine, and gives way 
to fear, jealousy, and fits -of the spleen; when his mind 
complains of his fortune, and he quits the station in which 
Providence has placed him, he acts perfectly counter to 
humanity, deserts his own nature, and, as it were, runs away 
from himself. 

32. Be not heavy in business, disturbed in conversation, 
nor impertinent in your thoughts. Let your judgment be 
right, your actions friendly, and your mind contented ; let 
them curse you, threaten you, or despise you ; let them go 
on ; they can never injure your reason or your virtue, and 
then all the rest that they can do to you signifies nothing. 

33. The only pleasure of human life is doing the business 
of the creation ; and which way is that to be compassed very 
easily ? Most certainly by the practice of general kindness, 
by rejecting the importunity of our senses, by distinguishing 
truth from falsehood, and by contemplating the works of the 
Almighty. 

34. Be sure to mind that which lies before you, whether it 
be thought, word, or action ; and never postpone an oppor- 
tunity, or make virtue wait for you till to-morrow. 

35. Whatever tends neither to the improvement of your 
reason nor the benefit of society, think it below you ; and 
when you have done any considerable service to mankind, do 
not lessen it by your folly in gaping after reputation and 
requital. 

36. When you find yourself sleepy in a morning, rouse 
yourself, and consider that you are born to business, and 
that in doing good in your generation, you answer your 
character and act like a man ; whereas sleep and idleness do 
but degrade you, and sink you down to a brute. 

37. A mind that has nothing of hope, or fear, or aversion, 
or desire, to weaken and disturb it, is the most impregnable 
security. Hither we may with safety retire and defy our 



488 DICKORY CRONKE. 

enemies ; and he that sees not this advantage must be 
extremely ignorant, and he that forgets it unhappy. 

38. Do not disturb yourself about the faults of other 
people, but let everybody's crimes be at their own door. 
Have always this great maxim in your remembrance, that to 
play the knave is to rebel against religion; all sorts of 
injustice being no less than high treason against Heaven 
itself. 

39. Do- not contemn death, but meet it with a decent 
and religious fortitude, and look upon it as one of those 
things which Providence has ordered. If you want a cordial 
to make the apprehensions of dying go down a little the more 
easily, consider what sort of world and what sort of company 
you will part with. To conclude, do but look seriously into 
the world, and there you will see multitudes of people pre- 
paring for funerals, and mourning for their friends and 
acquaintances ; and look out again a little afterwards, and 
you will see others doing the very same thing for them. 

40. In short, men are but poor transitory things. To-day 
they are busy and harassed with the affairs of human life ; 
and to-morrow life itself is taken from them, and they are 
returned to their original dust and ashes. 



PAET m. 

Containing prophetic observations relating to the affairs of Europe 
and of Great Britain) more particularly from 1720 to 1729. 

1. In the latter end of 1720, an eminent old lady shall bring 
forth five sons at a birth ; the youngest shall live and grow 
up to maturity, but the four eldest shall either die in the 
nursery, or be all carried off by one sudden and unexpected 
accident. 

2. About this time a man with a double head shall arrive 
in Britain from the south. One of these heads shall deliver 
messages of great importance to the governing party, and 
the other to the party that is opposite to them. The first 
shall believe the monster, but the last shall discover the 
impostor, and so happily disengage themselves from a snare 
that was laid to destroy them and their posterity. After this 



PROPHETIC OBSERVATIONS. 489 

the two heads shall unite, and the monster shall appear in 
his proper shape. 

3. In the year 1721, a philosopher from Lower Germany 
shall come, first to Amsterdam in Holland, and afterwards to 
London. He will bring with him a world of curiosities, and 
among them a pretended secret for the transmutation of 
metals. Under the umbrage of this mighty secret he shall 
pass upon the world for some time ; but at length he shall 
be detected, and proved to be nothing but an empiric and a 
cheat, and so forced to sneak off, and leave the people he has 
deluded, either to bemoan their loss, or laugh at their own 
folly. N.B. — This will be the last of his sect that will ever 
venture in this part of the world upon the same errand. 

4. In this year great endeavours will be used for procur- 
ing a general peace, which shall be so near a conclusion that 
public rejoicings shall be made at the courts of several great 
potentates upon that account ; but just in the critical juncture, 
a certain neighbouring prince shall come to a violent death, 
which shall occasion new war and commotion all over Europe ; 
but these shall continue but for a short time, and at las't 
terminate in the utter destruction of the first aggressors. 

5. Towards the close of this year of mysteries, a person that 
was born blind shall have his sight restored, and shall see 
ravens perch upon the heads of traitors, among which the 
head of a notorious prelate shall stand upon the highest pole. 

6. In the year 1722, there shall be a grand congress, and 
new overtures of peace offered by most of the principal parties 
concerned in the war, which shall have so good effect that a 
cessation of arms shall be agreed upon for six months, which 
shall be kept inviolable till a certain general, either through 
treachery or inadvertency, shall begin hostilities before the 
expiration of the term ; upon which the injured prince shall 
draw his sword, and throw the scabbard into the sea, vowing 
never to return it till he shall obtain satisfaction for himself, 
and done justice to all that were oppressed. 

7. At the close of this year, a famous bridge shall be 
broken down, and the water that runs under it shall be tinc- 
tured with the blood of two notorious malefactors, whose 
unexpected death shall make mighty alterations in the present 
state of affairs, and put a stop to the ruin of a nation, which 
must otherwise have been unavoidable. 

8. 1723 begins with plots, conspiracies, and intestine com- 



490 DICKORY CKONKE. 

motions in several countries ; nor shall Great Britain itself 
be free from the calamity. These shall continue till a certain 
young prince shall take the reins of government into his own 
hands ; and after that, a marriage shall be proposed, and an 
alliance concluded between two great potentates, who shall 
join their forces, and endeavour, in good earnest, to set all 
matters upon a right foundation. 

9. This year several cardinals and prelates shall be publicly 
censured for heretical principles, and shall narrowly escape 
from being torn to pieces by the common people, who still 
look upon them as the grand disturbers of public tranquillity, 
perfect incendiaries, and the chief promoters of their former, 
present, and future calamities. 

10. In 1724-5 there will be many treaties and negotia- 
tions, and Great Britain, particularly, will be crowded with 
foreign ministers and ambassadors from remote princes and 
states. Trade and commerce will begin to flourish and revive, 
and everything will have a comfortable prospect, until some 
desperadoes, assisted by a monster with many heads, shall 
start new difficulties, and put the world again into a flame ; 
but these shall be but of short duration. 

11. Before the expiration of 1725, an eagle from the north 
shall fly directly to the south, and perch upon the palace of a 
prince, and first unravel the bloody projects and designs of a 
wicked set of people, and then publicly discover the murder 
of a great king, and the intended assassination of another 
greater than he. 

12. In 1726, three princes will be born that will grow up 
to be men, and inherit the crowns of three of the greatest 
monarchies in Europe. 

13. About this time the pope will die, and after a great 
many intrigues and struggles, a Spanish cardinal shall be 
elected, who shall decline the dignity, and declare his 
marriage with a great lady, heiress of one of the chief princi- 
palities in Italy, which may occasion new troubles in Europe, 
if not timely prevented. 

14. In 1727, new troubles shall break out in the north, 
occasioned by the sudden death of a certain prince, and the 
avarice and ambition of another. Poor Poland seems to be 
pointed at ; but the princes of the south shall enter into a 
confederacy to preserve her, and shall at length restore her 
peace, and prevent the perpetual ruin of her constitution. 



PROPHETIC OBSERVATIONS. 491 

15. Great 'endeavours will be used about this time for a 
comprehension in religion, supported by crafty and designing 
men, and a party of mistaken zealots, which they shall 
artfully draw in to join with them ; but as the project is ill* 
concerted, and will be worse managed, it will come to 
nothing ; and soon afterwards an effectual mode will be taken 
to prevent the like attempt for the future. 

16. 1728 will be a year of inquiry arid retrospection. 
Many exorbitant grants will be reassumed, and several 
persons who thought themselves secure will be called before 
the senate, and compelled to disgorge what they have unjustly 
pillaged either from the crown or the public. 

17. About this time a new scaffold will be erected upon 
the confines of a certain great city, where an old count of a 
new extraction, that has been of all parties and true to none, 
will be doomed by his peers to make his first appearance. 
After this an old lady who has often been exposed to danger 
and disgrace, and sometimes brought to the very brink of 
destruction, will be brought to bed of three daughters at 
once, which they shall call Plenty, Peace, and Union ; and 
these three shall live and grow up together, be the glory of 
their mother, and the comfort of posterity for many genera- 
tions. 

This is the substance of what he either writ or extracted 
from his papers in the interval between the loss of his speech 
and the return of his fit, which happened exactly at the time 
he had computed. 

Upon the approach of his fit, he made signs to be put to 
bed, which was no sooner done but he was seized with ex- 
treme agonies, which he bore up under with the greatest 
steadfastness, and after a severe conflict, that lasted near 
eight hours, he expired. 

Thus lived and thus died this extraordinary person; a 
person, though of mean extraction and obscure life, yet when 
his character comes to be fully and truly known, it will be 
read with pleasure, profit, and admiration. 

His perfections at large would be the work of a volume, 
and inconsistent with the intention of these papers. I will, 
therefore, only add, for a conclusion, that he was a man of 
uncommon thought and judgment, and always kept his appe- 
tites and inclinations within their just limits. 






492 DICKORY CRONKE. 

His reason was strong and manly, his understanding sound 
and active, and his temper so easy, equal, and complaisant, 
that he never fell out, either with men or accidents. He 
bore all things with the highest affability, and computed 
justly upon their value and consequence, and then applied 
them to their proper uses. 



A LETTER FROM OXFORD. 

Sir, 

Being informed that you speedily intend to publish 
some memoirs relating to our dumb countryman, Dickory 
Cronke, I send you herewith a few lines, in the nature of an 
elegy, which I leave you to dispose of as you think fit. I 
knew and admired the man ; and if I were capable, his 
character should be the first thing I would attempt. 

Yours, &c. 



AN ELEGY. 493 



AN ELEGY, 

IN MEMORY OF DICKORY CRONKE, 
THE DUMB PHILOSOPHER. 

Vitiis nemo sine nascitur ; optimus ille est. 
Qui minimus urgetur. — Horace. 

If virtuous actions emulation raise, 

Then this good man deserves immortal praise. 

When nature such extensive wisdom lent, 

She sure designed him for our precedent. 

Such great endowments in a man unknown, 

Declare the blessings were not all his own ; 

But rather granted for a time to show 

What the wise hand of Providence can do. 

In him we may a bright example see 

Of nature, justice, and morality ; 

A mind not subject to the frowns of fate, 

But calm and easy in a servile state. 

He always kept a guard upon his will 

And feared no harm because he knew no ill. 

A decent posture and an humble mien, 

In every action of his life were seen. 

Through all the different stages that he went, 

He still appeared both wise and diligent : 

Firm to his word, and punctual to his trust, 

Sagacious, frugal, affable, and just. 

No gainful views his bounded hopes could sway, 

No wanton thought led his chaste soul astray. 

In short, his thoughts and actions both declare, 

Nature designed him her philosopher ; 

That all mankind, by his example taught, 

Might learn to live, and manage every thought. 

Oh ! could my muse the wondrous subject grace, 

And, from his youth, his virtuous actions trace ; 

Could I in just and equal numbers tell 

How well he lived, and how devoutly fell, 

I boldly might your strict attention claim, 

And bid you learn, and copy out the man. 

J. P. 
Exeter College, August 25th, 1719. 



494 DICKORT CEONKE. 



EPITAPH. 

The occasion of this epitaph was briefly thus : — A gentleman, 
who had heard much in commendation of this dumb man, 
going accidentally to the churchyard where he was buried, 
and finding his grave without a tombstone, or any manner of 
memorandum of his death, he pulled out his pencil, and writ 
as follows : — 

PAUPER UBIQUE JACET. 

Near to this lonely unfrequented place, 

Mixed with the common dust, neglected lies 

The man that every muse should strive to grace, 

And all the world should for his virtue prize. 

Stop, gentle passenger, and drop a tear, 

Truth, justice, wisdom, all lie buried here. 

What, though he wants a monumental stone, 
The common pomp of every fool or knave, 
Those virtues which through all his actions shone 
Proclaim his worth, and praise him in the grave. 
His merits will a bright example give, 
Which shall both time and envy too outlive. 

Oh, had I power but equal to my mind, 

A decent tomb should soon this place adorn, 
With this inscription : Lo, here lies confined 
A wondrous man, although obscurely born ; 
A man, though dumb, yet he was nature's care, 
Who marked him out her own philosopher. 



EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS 

is 

NOBODY'S BUSINESS; 

OR, 

PRIVATE ABUSES, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES: 

EXEMPLIFIED 

In the Pride, Insolence, and exorbitant "Wages of 
our Women, Servants, Footmen, &c. 



A Proposal for Amendment of the same; as also 
for clearing the Streets of those Vermin called 
Shoe-Cleaners, and substituting in their stead 
many Thousands of industrious Poor, now ready- 
to starve. With divers other Hints of great Use 
to the Public. 

Humbly submitted the Consideration of our Legis- 
lature, and the careful Perusal of all Masters and 
Mistresses of Families. 



By Andrew Moreton, Esq. 
The Fifth Edition, with the Addition of a Preface. 



L OND ON: 

Printed for W. Meadows, in Cornhill; and sold by 
T. Warner, at the Black Boy in Pater-Noster 
Bow; A. Dodd, without Temple Bar; and E. 
Nutt, at the Boyal Exchange. 1725. 



[Price Six Pence.~] 



THE PKEFACE. 



Since this little book appeared in print, it has had no less 
than three answers, and fresh attacks are daily expected 
from the powers of Grub-street ; but should threescore 
antagonists more arise, unless they say more to the purpose 
than the forementioned, they shall not tempt me to reply. 

Nor shall I engage in a paper war, but leave my book to 
answer for itself, having advanced nothing therein but 
evident truths, and incontestible matters of fact. 

The general objection is against my style ; I do not set up 
for an author, but write only to be understood, no matter 
how plain. 

As my intentions are good, so have they had the good 
fortune to meet with approbation from the sober and sub- 
stantial part of mankind ; as for the vicious and vagabond, 
their ill-will is my ambition. 

It is with uncommon satisfaction I see the magistracy 
begin to put the laws against vagabonds in force with the 
utmost vigour, a great many of those vermin, the japanners, 
having lately been taken up and sent to the several work • 
houses in and about this city; and indeed high time, for they 
grow every day more and more pernicious. 

My project for putting watchmen under commissioners, 
will, I hope, be put in practice ; for it is scarce safe to go by 
water unless you know your man. 

As for the maid -servants, if I undervalue myself to take 

VOL. II. K K 



498 THE PKEFACE. 

notice of them, as they are pleased to say, it is because 
they overvalue themselves so much they ought to be taken 
notice o£ 

This makes the guilty take my subject by the wrong end, 
but any impartial reader may find, I write not against 
servants, but bad servants; not against wages, but exorbitant 
wages, and am entirely of the poet's opinion, 

The good should meet with favour and applause, 
The wicked be restraint by wholesome laws. 

The reason why I did not publish this book till the end of 
the last sessions of parliament was, because I did not care to 
interfere with more momentous affairs ; but leave it to the 
consideration of that august body during this recess, against 
the next sessions, when I shall exhibit another complaint 
against a growing abuse, for which I doubt not but to 
receive their approbation and the thanks of all honest men. 



EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS 



NOBODY'S BUSINESS. 



This is a proverb so common in everybody's mouth, that I 
wonder nobody has yet thought it worth while to draw proper 
inferences from it, and expose those little abuses, which, though 
they seem trifling, and as it were scarce worth consideration, 
yet, by insensible degrees, they may become of injurious 
consequence to the public ; like some diseases, whose first 
symptoms are only trifling disorders, but by continuance and 
progression, their last periods terminate in the destruction of 
the whole human fabric. 

In contradiction therefore to this general rule, and out of 
sincere love and well meaning to the public, give me leave to 
enumerate the abuses insensibly crept in among us, and the 
inconveniences daily arising from the insolence and intrigues 
of our servant- wenches, who, by their caballing together, have 
made their party so considerable, that everybody cries out 
against them ; and yet, to verify the proverb, nobody has 
thought of, or at least proposed a remedy, although such an 
undertaking, mean as it seems to be, I hope will one day be 
thought worthy the consideration of our king, lords, and 
commons. 

Women servants are now so scarce, that from thirty and 
forty shillings a year, their wages are increased of late to six, 
seven, nay, eight pounds per annum, and upwards ; insomuch 
that an ordinary tradesman cannot well keep one ; but his 
wife, who might be useful in his shop or business, must do 
the drudgery of household affairs ; and all this because our 
servant- wenches are so puffed up with pride nowadays, that 
they never think they go fine enough : it is a hard matter to 

K K 2 



500 everybody's business is nobody's business. 

know the mistress from the maid by their dress ; nay, very 
often the maid shall be much the finer of the two. Our 
woollen manufacture suffers much by this, for nothing but 
silks and satins will go down with our kitchen-wenches ; to 
support which intolerable pride, they have insensibly raised 
their wages to such a height as was never known in any age 
or nation but this. 

Let us trace this from the beginning, and suppose a person 
has a servant-maid sent him out of the country, at fifty 
shillings, or three pounds a year. The girl has scarce been 
a week, nay, a day in her service, but a committee of servant- 
wenches are appointed to examine her, who advise her to raise 
her wages, or give warning ; to encourage her to which, the 
herb-woman, or chandler- woman, or some other old intelli 
gencer, provides her a place of four or five pounds a year 
this sets madam cock-a-hoop, and she thinks of nothing now 
but vails and high wages, and so gives warning from place to 
place, till she has got her wages up to the tip-top. 

Her neat's leathern shoes are now transformed into laced 
ones with high heels ; her yarn stockings are turned into fine 
woollen ones, with silk clocks ; and her high wooden pattens 
are kicked away for leathern clogs ; she must have a hoop 
too, as well as her mistress ; and her poor scanty linsey- 
woolsey petticoat is changed into a good silk one, for four or 
five yards wide at the least. Not to carry the description 
farther, in short, plain country Joan is now turned into a fine 
London madam, can drink tea, take snuff, and carry herself 
as high as the best. 

If she be tolerably handsome, and has any share of cunning, 
the apprentice or her master's son is enticed away and ruined 
by her. Thus many good families are impoverished and 
disgraced by these pert sluts, who, taking the advantage of a 
young man's simplicity and unruly desires, draw many heed- 
less youths, nay, some of good estates, into their snares ; and 
of this we have but too many instances. 

Some more artful shall conceal their condition, and palm 
themselves off on young fellows for gentlewomen and great 
fortunes. How many families have been ruined by these 
ladies ? when the father or master of the family, preferring 
the flirting airs of a young prinked up strumpet, to the artless 
sincerity of a plain, grave, and good wife, has given his desires 
aloose, and destroyed soul, body, family, and estate. But 



THEFTS COMMITTED BY FEMALE SERVANTS. 501 

they are very favourable if they wheedle nobody into matrimony, 
but only make a present of a small live creature, no bigger 
than a bastard, to some of the family, no matter who gets it; 
when a child is born it must be kept. 

Our sessions' papers of late are crowded with instances of 
servant-maids robbing their places, this can be only attributed 
to their devilish pride ; for their whole inquiry nowadays is, 
how little they shall do, how much they shall have. 

But all this while they make so little reserve, that if they 
fall sick the parish must keep them, if they are out of place, 
they must prostitute their bodies, or starve ; so that from 
chopping and changing, they generally proceed to whoring 
and thieving, and this is the reason why our streets swarm 
with strumpets. 

Thus many of them rove from place to place, from bawdy- 
house to service, and from service to bawdy-house again, ever 
unsettled and never easy, nothing being more common than 
to find these creatures one week in a good family, and the 
next in a brothel. This amphibious life makes them fit for 
neither, for if the bawd uses them ill, away they trip to 
service, and if the mistress gives them a wry word, whip they 
are at a bawdy-house again, so that in effect rthey neither 
make good whores nor good servants.} 

Those who are not thus slippery in the tail, are light of 
finger ; and of these the most pernicious are those who beggar 
you inchmeal. If a' maid is a downright thief she strips you 
at once, and you knoV your loss ; but these retail pilferers 
waste you insensibly, and though you hardly miss it, yet your 
substance shall decay to such a degree, that you must have a 
very good bottom indeed not to feel the ill effects of such 
moths in your family. 

Tea, sugar, wine, &c, or any such trifling commodities, 
are reckoned no thefts, if they do not directly take your 
pewter from your shelf, or your linen from your drawers, they 
are very honest : What harm is there, say they, in cribbing 
a little matter for a junket, a merry bout or so? Nay, there 
are those that when they are sent to market for one joint of 
meat, shall take up two on their master's account, and leave 
one by the way, for some of these maids are mighty charitable, 
and can make a shift to maintain a small family with what 
they can purloin from their masters and mistresses. 

If you send them with ready money, they turn factors, and 



502 EVERYBODY S BUSINESS IS NOBODY S BUSINESS. 

take threepence or fourpence in the shilling brokerage. And 
here let me take notice of one very heinous abuse, not to say 
petty felony, which is practised in most of the great families 
about town, which is, when the tradesman gives the house- 
keeper or other commanding servant a penny or twopence in 
the shilling, or so much in the pound, for everything they 
send in, and which, from thence, is called poundage. 

This, in my opinion, is the greatest of villanies, and ought 
to incur some punishment, yet nothing is more common, and 
our topping tradesmen, who seem otherwise to stand mightily 
on their credit, make this but a matter of course and custom. 
If I do not, says one, another will (for the servant is sure to 
pick a hole in the person's coat who shall not pay contribu- 
tion). Thus this wicked practice .is carried on and winked 
at, while receiving of stolen goods, and confederating with 
felons, which is not a jot worse, is so openly cried out against, 
and severely punished, witness Jonathan Wild. 

And yet if a master or mistress inquire after anything 
missing, they must be sure to place their words in due form, 
or madam huffs and flings about at a strange rate, What, 
would you make a thief of her ? Who would live with such 
mistrustful folks ? Thus you are obliged to hold your tongue, 
and sit down quietly by your loss, for fear of offending your 
maid, forsooth! 

Again, if your maid shall maintain one, two, or more 
persons from your table, whether they are her poor relations, 
countryfolk, servants out of place, shoe-cleaners, charwomen, 
porters, or any other of her menial servants, who do her 
ladyship's drudgery and go of her errands, you must not com- 
plain at your expense, or ask what has become of such a 
thing, or such a thing ; although it might never so reasonably 
be supposed that it was altogether impossible to have so much 
expended in your family ; but hold your tongue for peace 
sake, or madam will say, You grudge her victuals ; and ex- 
pose you to the last degree all over the neighbourhood. 

Thus have they a salve for every sore, cheat you to your 
face, and insult you into the bargain ; nor can you help your- 
self without exposing yourself, or putting yourself into a 
passion. 

Another great abuse crept in among us, is the giving of 
vails to servants ; this was intended originally as an encou- 
ragement to such as were willing and handy, but by custom 



VAILS TO SERVANTS A BAD PRACTICE. 503 

and corruption it is now grown to be a thorn in our sides, 
and, like other good things, abused, does more harm than 
good ; for now they make it a perquisite, a material part of 
their wages, nor must their master give a supper, but the 
maid expects the guests should pay for it, nay, sometimes 
through the nose. Thus have they spirited people up to this 
unnecessary and burthensome piece of generosity unknown 
to our forefathers, who only gave gifts to servants at Christ- 
mas-tide, which custom is yet kept into the bargain ;. inso- 
much that a maid shall have eight pounds per annum in a 
gentleman's or merchant's family. And if her master is a 
man of free spirit, who receives much company, she very often 
doubles her wages by her vails ; thus having meat, drink, 
washing, and lodging for her labour, she throws her whole 
income upon her back, and by this means looks more like the 
mistress of the family than the servant- wench. 4— 

And now we have mentioned washing, I would ask some 
good housewifely gentlewoman, if servant-maids wearing 
printed linens, cottons, and other things of that nature, 
which require frequent washing, do not, by enhancing the 
article of soap, add more to housekeeping than the generality 
of people would imagine ? And yet these wretches cry out 
against great washes, when their own unnecessary dabs are 
very often the occasion. 

But the greatest abuse of all is, that these creatures are 
become their own lawgivers ; nay, I think they are ours too, 
though nobody would imagine that such a set of slatterns 
should bamboozle a whole nation ; but it is neither better 
nor worse, they hire themselves to you by their own rule. 

That is, a month's wages, or a month's warning ; if they 
don't like you they will go away the next day, help yourself 
how you can ; if you don't like them, you must give them a 
month's wages to get rid of them. 

This custom of warning, as practised by our maid-servants, 
is now become a great inconvenience to masters and mis- 
tresses. You must carry your dish very upright, or miss, 
forsooth, gives you warning, and you are either left destitute, 
or to seek for a servant ; so that, generally speaking, you are 
seldom or never fixed, but always at the mercy of every new 
comer to divulge your family affairs, to inspect your private 
life, and treasure up the sayings of yourself and friends. A 



504 everybody's business is nobody's business. 

very great confinement, and much complained of in most 
families. 

Thus have these wenches, by their continual plotting and 
cabals, united themselves into a formidable body, and got the 
whip hand of their betters ; they make their own terms with 
us; and two servants now, will scarce undertake jfthe work 
which one might perform with ease ; notwithstanding which, 
they have raised their wages to a most exorbitant pitch ; 
and, I doubt not, if there be not a stop put to their career, 
but they will bring wages up to 20Z. per annum in time, for 
they are much about half way already. 

It is by these means they run away with a great part ot 
our money, which might be better employed in trade, and 
what is worse, by their insolent behaviour, their pride in 
dress, and their exorbitant wages, they give birth to the fol- 
lowing inconveniences. 

First, They set an ill example to our children, our appren- 
tices, our covenant servants, and other dependants, by their 
saucy and insolent behaviour, their pert, and sometimes 
.abusive answers, their daring defiance of correction, and 
many other insolences which youth are but too apt to imitate. 

Secondly, By their extravagance in dress, they put our 
wives and daughters upon yet greater excesses, because they 
will, as indeed they ought, go finer than the maid ; thus the 
maid striving to outdo the mistress, the tradesman's wife to 
outdo the gentleman's wife, the gentleman's wife emulating 
the lady, and the ladies one another ; it seems as if the 
whole business of the female sex were nothing but an excess 
of pride, and extravagance in dress. 

Thirdly, The great height to which women-servants have 
brought their wages, makes a mutiny among the men- 
servants, and puts them upon raising their wages too ; so 
that in a little time our servants will become our partners ; 
nay, probably, run away with the better part of our profits, 
and make servants of us vice versa. But yet with all these 
inconveniences, we cannot possibly do without these creatures ; 
let us therefore cease to talk of the abuses arising from them, 
and begin to think of redressing them. I do not set up for a 
lawgiver, and therefore shall lay down no certain rules, humbly 
submitting in all things to the wisdom of our legislature. 
What I offer shall be under correction ; and upon conjecture, 



SERVANTS APPAREL OUGHT TO BE REGULATED. 505 

my utmost ambition being but to give some bints to remedy 
this growing evil, and leave the prosecution to abler hands. 

And first it would be necessary to settle and limit their 
wages, from forty and fifty shillings to four and f}ve pounds 
per aunum, that is to say, according to their merits and 
capacities; for example, a young unexperienced servant should 
have forty shillings per annum, till she qualifies herself for a 
larger sum ; a servant who can do all household work, or, as the 
good women term it, can take her work and leave her work, 
should have four pouuds per annum ; and those who have 
lived seven years in one service, should ever after demand 
five pounds per annum, for I would very fain have some par- 
ticular encouragements and privileges given to such servants 
who should continue long in a place ; it would incite a desire 
to please, and cause an emulation very beneficial to the 
public. 

I have heard of an ancient charity in the parish of St. 
Clement's Danes, where a sum of money, or estate, is left, 
out of the interest or income of which such maid-servants, 
who have lived in that parish seven years in one service, 
receive a reward of ten pounds apiece, if they please to de- 
mand it. 

This is a noble benefaction, and shows the public spirit of 
the donor ; but every dody's business is nobody's ; nor have I 
heard that such reward has been paid to any servant of late 
years. A thousand pities a gift of that nature should sink 
into oblivion, and not be kept up as an example to incite all 
parishes to do the like. 

The Romans had a law called Jus Trium Liherorum, by 
which every man who had been a father of three children, 
had particular honours and privileges. This incited the youth 
to quit a dissolute single life and become fathers of families, 
to the support and glory of the empire. 

In imitation of this most excellent law, I would have such 
servants, who should continue many years in one service, 
meet with singular esteem and reward. 

The apparel of our women-servants should be next 
regulated, that we may know the mistress from the maid. I 
remember I was once put very much to the blush, ^being at a 
friend's house, and by him required to salute the ladies, I 
kissed the chamber-jade into the bargain, for she was as well 
dressed as the best. But I was soon undeceived by a general 



506 everybody's business is nobody's business. 

titter, which gave me the utmost confusion ; nor can I believe 
myself the only person who has made such a mistake. 

Things of this nature would be easily avoided, if servant- 
maids were to wear liveries, as our footmen do ; or obliged 
to go in a dress suitable to their station. What should ail 
them, but a jacket and petticoat of good yard-wide stuff, or 
calimanco, might keep them decent and warm. 

Our charity children are distinguished by their dress, why 
then may not our women-servants ? why may they not be. 
made frugal per force, and not suffered to put all on their 
backs, but obliged to save something against a rainy day ? I 
am, therefore, entirely against servants wearing of silks, laces, 
and other superfluous finery ; it sets them above themselves, 
and makes their mistresses contemptible in their eyes. I am 
handsomer than my mistress, says a young prinked up bag- 
gage, what pity it is I should be her servant, I go as well 
dressed, or better than she. This makes the girl take the 
first offer to be made a whore, and there is a good servant 
spoiled ; whereas, were her dress suitable to her condition, it 
would teach her humility, and put her in mind of her duty. 

Besides the fear of spoiling their clothes makes them afraid 
of household- work ; so that in a little time we shall have none 
but chambermaids and nurserymaids ; and of this let me give 
one instance ; my family is composed of myself and sister, a 
man and a maid ; and, being without the last, a young wench 
came to hire herself. The man was gone out, and my sister 
above stairs, so I opened the door myself, and this person 
presented herself to my view, dressed completely, more like a 
visitor than a servant-maid ; she, not knowing me, asked for 
my sister; pray, madam, said I, be pleased to walk into 
the parlour, she shall wait on you presently. Accordingly I 
handed madam in, who took it very cordially. After some 
apology, I left her alone for a minute or two ; while I, stupid 
wretch ! ran up to my sister, and told her there was a gentle- 
woman below come to visit her. Dear brother, said she, don't 
leave her alone, go down and entertain her while I dress my- 
self. Accordingly, down I went, and talked of indifferent 
affairs ; meanwhile my sister dressed herself all over again, 
not being willing to be seen in an undress. At last she came 
down dressed as clean as her visitor ; but how great was my 
surprise when I found my fine lady a common servant- 
wench. 



ANECDOTE OF A SERVANT WENCH. 507 

My sister understanding what she was, began to inquire 
what wages she expected? She modestly asked but eight 
pounds a year. The next question was, what work she could 
do to deserve such wages ? to which she answered, she could 
clean a house, or dress a common family dinner. But cannot 
you wash, replied my sister, or get up linen ? she answered 
in the negative, and said, she would undertake neither, nor 
would she go into a family that did not put out their linen 
to wash, and hire a charwoman to scour. She desired to see 
the house, and having carefully surveyed it, said, the work 
was too hard for her, nor could she undertake it. This put 
my sister beyond all patience, and me into the greatest ad 
miration. Young woman, said she, you have made a mistake, 
I want a housemaid, and you are a chambermaid. No, 
madam, replied she, I am not needlewoman enough for that. 
And yet you ask eight pounds a year, replied my sister. Yes, 
madam, said she, nor shall I bate a farthing. Then get you 
gone for a lazy impudent baggage, said I, you want to be a 
boarder not a servant ; have you a fortune or estate that you 
dress at that rate ? No, sir, said she, but I hope I may wear 
what I work for without offence. What you work, interrupted 
my sister, why you do not seem willing to undertake any work; 
you will not wash nor scour ; you cannot dress a dinner for 
company ; you are no needlewoman ; and our little house 
of two rooms on a floor, is too much for you. For God's sake 
what can you do ? Madam, replied she pertly ; I know my 
business ; and do not fear a service ; there are more places 
than parish churches ; if you wash at home, you should 
have a laundrymaid ; if you give entertainments, you must 
have a cookmaid ; if you have any needlework, you should 
have a chambermaid ; and such a house as this is enough for 
a housemaid in all conscience. 

I was pleased at the wit, and astonished at the impudence 
of the girl, so dismissed her with thanks for her instructions, 
assuring her that when I kept four maids she should be house- 
maid if she pleased. 

Were a servant to do my business with cheerfulness, I 
should not grudge at five or six pounds per annum; nor would 
I be so unchristian to put more upon any one than they can 
bear ; but to pray and pay too is the devil. It is very hard, 
that I must keep four servants or none. 

In great families, indeed, where many servants are required, 



508 everybody's business is nobody's business. 

those distinctions of chambermaid, housemaid, cookmaid, 
laundrymaid, nurserymaid, &c, are requisite, to the end that 
each may take her particular business, and many hands may 
make the work light ; but for a private gentleman, of a small 
fortune, to be obliged to keep so many idle jades, when one 
might do the business, is intolerable, and matter of great 
grievance. 

I cannot close this discourse without a gentle admonition 
and reproof to some of my own sex, I mean those gentlemen 
who give themselves unnecessary airs, and cannot go to see a 
friend, but they must kiss and slop the maid ; and all this is 
done with an air of gallantry, and must not be resented. 
Nay, some gentlemen are so silly, that they shall carry on an 
underhand affair with their friend's servant-maid, to their 
own disgrace, and the ruin of many a young creature. 
Nothing is more base and ungenerous, yet nothing more com- 
mon, and withal so little taken notice of. D — n me, Jack, says 
one friend to another, this maid of yours is a pretty girl, you 
do so and so to her, by G — d. This makes the creature 
pert, vain, and impudent, and spoils many a good servant. 

What gentleman will descend to this low way of intrigue, 
when he shall consider that he has a footboy or an appren- 
tice for his rival, and that he is seldom or never admitted, 
but when they have been his tasters ; and the fool of fortune, 
though he comes at the latter end of the feast, yet pays the 
whole reckoning ; and so indeed would I have all such silly 
cullies served. 

If I must have an intrigue, let it be with a woman that 
shall not shame me. I would never go into the kitchen, 
when the parlour door was open. We are forbidden at 
Highgate, to kiss the maid when we may kiss the mistress ; 
why then will gentlemen descend so low, by too- much 
familiarity with these creatures, to N bring themselves «intc 
contempt? 

I have been at places where the maid has been so dizzied 
with these idle compliments that she has mistook one thing 
^or another, and not regarded her mistress in the least ; but 
• >ut on all the flirting airs imaginable. This behaviour is 
nowhere so much complained of as in taverns, coffeehouses, 
and places of public resort, where there are handsome bar- 
keepers, &c. These creatures being puffed up with the 
fulsome flattery of a set of flesh-flies, which are continually 



REFORM OF MANY ABUSES AMONG SERVANTS. 509 

buzzing about them, cany themselves with the utmost inso- 
lence imaginable ; insomuch, that you must speak to them 
with a great deal of deference, or you are sure to be affronted. 
Being at a coffeehouse the other day, where one of these 
ladies kept the bar, I had bespoke a dish of rice tea ; but 
madam was so taken up with her sparks, she had quite forgot 
it. I spake for it again, and with some temper, but was 
answered after a most taunting manner, not without a toss 
of the head, a contraction of the nostrils, and other imperti- 
nences, too many to enumerate. Seeing myself thus publicly 
insulted by such an animal, I could not choose but show my 
resentment. Woman, said I, sternly, I want a dish of rice 
tea, and not what your vanity and impudence may imagine ; 
therefore treat me as a gentleman and a customer, and serve 
me with what I call for : keep your impertinent repartees 
and impudent behaviour for the coxcombs that swarm round 
your bar, and make you so vain of your blown carcase. And 
indeed I believe the insolence of this creature will ruin her 
master at last, by driving away men of sobriety and business, 
and making the place a den of vagabonds and rakehells. 

Gentlemen, therefore, ought to be very circumspect in their 
behaviour, and not undervalue themselves to servant-wenches, 
who are but too apt to treat a gentleman ill whenever he 
puts himself into their power. 

Let me now beg pardon for this digression, and return to 
my subject by proposing some practicable methods for regu- 
lating of servants, which, whether they are followed or not, 
yet, if they afford matter of improvement and speculation, will 
answer the height of my expectation, and I will be the first 
who shall approve of whatever improvements are made from 
this small beginning. 

The first abuse I would have reformed is, that servants 
should be restrained from throwing themselves out of place 
on every idle vagary. This might be remedied were all con- 
tracts between master and servant made before a justice of 
peace, or other proper officer, and a memorandum thereof 
taken in writing. Nor should such servant leave his or her 
place (for men and maids might come under the same regu- 
lation) till the time agreed on be expired, unless such servant 
be misused or denied necessaries, or show some other reason- 
able cause for their discharge. In that case, the master or 
mistress should be reprimanded or fined But if servants 



510 everybody's business is nobody's business. 

misbehave themselves, or leave their places, not being 
regularly discharged, they ought to be amerced or punished. 
But all those idle, ridiculous customs, and laws of their own 
making, as a month's wages, or a month's warning, and such- 
like, should be entirely set aside and abolished. 

When a servant has served the limited time duly and 
faithfully, they should be entitled to a certificate, as is prac- 
tised at present in the wool-combing trade ; nor should any 
person hire a servant without a certificate or other proper 
security. A servant without a certificate should be deemed 
a vagrant ; and a master or mistress ought to assign very 
good reasons indeed when they object against giving a servant 
his or her certificate. 

And though, to avoid prolixity, I have not mentioned 
footmen particularly in the foregoing discourse, yet the com- 
plaints alleged against the maids are as well masculine as 
feminine, and very applicable to our gentlemen's gentlemen ; 
I would, therefore, have them under the very same regula- 
tions, and, as they are fellow-servants, would not make fish 
of one and flesh of the other, since daily experience teaches 
us, that " never a barrel the better herring." 

The next great abuse among us is, that under the notion 
of cleaning our shoes, above ten thousand wicked, idle, 
pilfering vagrants are permitted to patrol about our city and 
suburbs. These are called the black-guard, who black your 
honour's shoes, and incorporate themselves under the title of 
the Worshipful Company of Japanners. 

Were this all, there were no hurt in it, and the whole 
might terminate in a jest ; but the mischief ends not here, 
they corrupt our youth, especially our men-servants ; oaths 
and impudence are their only flowers of rhetoric ; gaming 
and thieving are the principal parts of their profession ; 
japanning but the pretence. For example, a gentleman keeps 
a servant, who among other things is to clean his master's 
shoes ; but our gentlemen's gentlemen are above it nowadays, 
and your man's man performs the office, for which piece of 
service you pay double and treble, especially if you keep a 
table, nay, you are well off if the japanner has no more than 
his own diet from it. * 

I have often observed these rascals sneaking from gentle- 
men's doors with wallets or hats' full of good victuals, which 
they either carry to their trulls, or sell for a trifle. By this 



ROBBERIES COMMITTED BY SHOE-BLACKS. 511 

means, our butcher's, our baker's, our poulterer's, and cheese- 
monger's bills are monstrously exaggerated ; not to mention 
candles just lighted, which sell for fivepence a pound, and 
many other perquisites best known to themselves and the 
pilfering villains their confederates. 

Add to this, that their continual gaming sets servants 
upon their wits to supply this extravagance, though at the 
same time the master's pocket pays for it, and the time which 
should be spent in a gentleman's service is loitered away 
among these rakehells, insomuch that half our messages are .gg 
ineffectual, the time intended being often expired before the JS 
message is delivered. 

How many frequent robberies are committed by these 
japanners? And to how many more are they confederates? 
Silver spoons, spurs, and other small pieces of plate, are every 
day missing, and very often found upon these sort of gentle- 
men ; yet are they permitted, to the shame of all our good 
laws, and the scandal of our most excellent government, to 
lurk about our streets, to debauch our servants and appren- 
tices, and support an infinite number of scandalous, shameless 
trulls, yet more wicked than themselves, for not a Jack 
among them but must have his Gill. 

By whom such indecencies are daily acted, even in our 
open streets, as are very offensive to the eyes and ears of all 
sober persons, and even abominable in a Christian country. 

In any riot, or other disturbance, these sparks are always 
the foremost ; for most among them can turn their hands to 
picking of pockets, to run away with goods from a fire, or 
other public confusion, to snatch anything from a woman 01 
child, to strip a house when the door is open, or any othei 
branch of a thief s profession. 

In short, it is a nursery for thieves and villains ; modest 
women are every day insulted by them and their strumpets ; 
and such children who run about the streets, or those servants 
who go on errands, do but too frequently bring home some 
scraps of their beastly profane wit ; insomuch, that the con- 
versation of our lower rank of people runs only upon bawdy 
and blasphemy, notwithstanding our societies for reformation, 
and our laws in force against profaneness ; for this lazy life 
gets them many proselytes, their numbers daily increasing 
from runaway apprentices and footboys, insomuch that it is 



512 eveetbodt's business is nobody's business. 

a very hard matter for a gentleman to get him a servant, or 
for a tradesman to find an apprentice. 

Innumerable other mischiefs accrue, and others will spring 
up from this race of caterpillars, who must be swept from 
out our streets, or we shall be overrun with all manner of 
wickedness. 

But the subject is so low, it becomes disagreeable even to 
myself ; give me leave, therefore, to propose a way to clear 
the streets of these vermin, and to substitute as many honest 
industrious persons in their stead, who are now starving for 
want of bread, while these execrable villains live, though in 
rags and nastiness, yet in plenty and luxury. 

I, therefore, humbly propose that these vagabonds be put 
immediately under the command of such taskma&ters as the 
government shall appoint, and that they be employed, punished, 
or rewarded, according to their capacities and demerits ; that 
is to say, the industrious and docible to woolcombing, and 
other parts of the woollen manufacture, where hands are 
wanted, as also to husbandry and other parts of agriculture. 

For it is evident that there are scarce hands enow in the 
country to carry on either of these affairs. Now, these 
vagabonds might not only by this means be kept out of harm's 
way, but be rendered serviceable to the nation. Nor is there 
any need of transporting them beyond seas, for if any are 
refractory they should be sent to our stannaries and other 
mines, to our coal works and other places where hard labour 
is required. And here I must offer one thing never yet 
thought of, or proposed by any, and that is, the keeping in 
due repair the navigation of the river Thames, so useful to 
our trade in general ; and yet of late years such vast hills of 
sand are gathered together in several parts of the river, as 
are very prejudicial to its navigation, one which is near 
London Bridge, another near Whitehall, a third near Batter- 
sea, and a fourth near Fulham. These are of very great 
hindrance to the navigation ; and indeed the removal of them 
ought to be a national concern, which I humbly propose may 
be thus effected. 

The rebellious part of these vagabonds, as also other thieves 
and offenders, should be formed into bodies under the com- 
mand of proper officers, and under the guard and awe of our 
soldiery.- These should every day at low water carry away 



EMPLOYMENT SUGGESTED FOR VAGRANTS. 513 

these sandhills, and remove every other obstruction to the 
navigation of this most excellent and useful river. 

It may be objected that the ballast men might do this ; 
that as fast as the hills are taken away they would gather to- 
gether again, or that the watermen might do it. To the first, 
I answer, that ballast men, instead of taking away from 
these hills, make holes in other places of the river, which is 
the reason so many young persons are drowned when swim- 
ming or bathing in the river. 

Besides, it is a work for many hands, and of long con- 
tinuance ; so that ballast men do more harm than good. 
The second objection is as silly; as if I should never wash 
myself, because I shall be dirty again, and I think needs no 
other answer. And as to the third objection, the watermen 
are not so public-spirited, they live only from hand to mouth, 
though not one of them but finds the inconvenience of these 
hills, every day being obliged to go a great way round about 
for fear of running aground ; insomuch that in a few years 
the navigation of that part of the river will be entirely 
obstructed. Nevertheless, every one of these gentlemen- 
watermen hopes it will last his time, and so they all cry, The 
devil take the hindmost. But yet I judge it highly neces- 
sary that this be made a national concern, like Dagenham 
breach, and that these hills be removed by some means or 
other. 

And now 1 have mentioned watermen, give me leave to 
complain of the insolences and exactions they daily commit 
on the river Thames, and in particular this one instance, 
which cries aloud for justice. 

A young lady of distinction, in company with her brother, 
a little youth, took a pair of oars at or near the Temple, on 
April day last, and ordered the men to carry them to Pepper 
Alley Stairs. One of the fellows, according to their usual 
impertinence, asked the lady where she was going ? She an- 
swered, near St. Olave's church. Upon which he said, she 
had better go through the bridge. The lady replied she had 
never gone through the bridge in her life, nor would she 
venture for a hundred guineas ; so commanded him once 
more to land her at Pepper Alley Stairs. Notwithstanding 
which, in spite of her fears, threats, and commands ; nay, in 
spite of the persuasion of his fellow, he forced her through 
London Bridge, which frightened her beyond expression. 

VOL. II. , L L 



514 everybody's business is nobody's business. 

And to mend the matter, he obliged her to pay double fare, 
and mobbed her into the bargain. 

To resent which abuse, application was made to the hall, 
the fellow summoned, and the lady ordered to attend, which 
she did, waiting there all the morning, and was appointed to 
call again in the afternoon. She came accordingly, they 
told her the fellow had been there, but was gone, and that 
she must attend another Friday. She attended again and 
again, but to the same purpose. Nor have they yet produced 
the man, but tired out the lady, who has spent above ten 
shillings in coach-hire, been abused and baffled into the bar- 
gain. 

It is pity, therefore, there are not commissioners for 
watermen, as there are for hackney coachmen; or that 
justices of the peace might not inflict bodily penalties on 
watermen thus offending. But while watermen are water- 
men's judges, I shall laugh at those who carry their complaints 
to the hall. 

The usual plea in behalf of abusive watermen is, that they 
are drunk, ignorant, or poor ; but will that satisfy the party 
aggrieved, or deter the offender from reoffending ? Whereas 
were the offenders sent to the house of correction, and there 
punished, or sentenced to work at the sandhills afore- 
mentioned, for a time suitable to the nature of their crimes, 
terror of such punishments would make them fearful of 
offending, to the great quiet of the subject. 

Now, it maybe asked, How shall we have our shoes cleaned, 
or how are these industrious poor to be maintained ? To this 
I answer that the places of these vagabonds may be very 
well supplied by great numbers of ancient persons, poor 
widows, and others, who have not enough from their 
respective parishes to maintain them. These poor people I 
would have authorised and stationed by the justices of the peace 
or other magistrates. Each of these should have a particular 
walk or stand, and no other shoe-cleaner should come into 
that walk, unless the person misbehave and be removed. 
Nor should any person clean shoes in the streets, but these 
authorised shoe-cleaners, who should have some mark of dis- 
tinction, and be under the immediate government of the 
justices of the peace. 

Thus would many thousands of poor people be provided 
for, without burthening their parishes. Some of these may 



REGULATIONS FOR PORTERS AND OTHERS. 515 

earn a shilling or two in the day, and none less than sixpence, 
or thereabouts.. And lest the old japanners should appear 
again, in the shape of linkboys, and knock down gentlemen in 
drink, or lead others out of the way into dark remote places, 
where they either put out their lights, and rob them them- 
selves, or run away and leave them to be pillaged by others, 
as is daily practised, I would have no person carry a link for 
hire but some of these industrious poor, and even such, not 
without some ticket or badge, to let people know whom they 
trust. Thus would the streets be cleared night and day oi 
these vermin; nor would oaths, skirmishes, blasphemy, 
obscene talk, or other wicked examples, be so public and 
frequent. All gaming at orange and gingerbread barrows 
should be abolished, as also all penny and halfpenny lotteries, 
thimbles and balls, &c, so frequent in Moorfields, Lincoln's- 
inn-fields, &c, where idle fellows resort, to play with children 
and apprentices, and tempt them to steal their parents' or 
master's money. 

There is one admirable custom in the city of London, which 
I could wish were imitated in the city and liberties of West- 
minster, and bills of mortality, which is, no porter can carry 
a burthen or letter in the city, unless he be a ticket porter ; 
whereas, out of the freedom part of London, any person may 
take a knot and turn porter, till he be entrusted with some- 
thing of value, and then you never hear of him more. 

This is very common, and ought to be amended. I would, 
therefore, have all porters under some such regulation as 
coachmen, chairmen, carmen, &c. ; a man may then know 
whom he entrusts, and not run the risk of losing his goods, 
&c. Nay, I would not have a person carry a basket in the 
markets, who is not subject to some such regulation; for 
very many persons oftentimes lose their dinners in sending 
their meat home by persons they know nothing of. 

Thus would all our poor be stationed, and a man or woman 
able to perform any of these offices, must either comply or 
be termed an idle vagrant, and sent to a place where they 
sh^all be forced to work. By this means industry will be 
encouraged, idleness punished, and we shall be famed, as 
well as happy for our tranquillity and decorum. 



LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET 
AND CHARING CROSS. 




740 i 













,0 V c ° 






%*% 



Y? 




^3*: , °* 




